Power Rangers: Primal Protectors
by Stormasius
Summary: After a disaster at E3 2020, Five unlikely gamers become Power Rangers to defeat the sinister Pivillinous Cenoric who sends his monsters out for his own entertainment. Armed with the Rubic Primers, bridging the gap between the digital world and the real world. Virtual Players, Real Heroes! They are Power Rangers: Primal Protectors! (Doubutsu Sentai Zyuohger adaptation)
1. Chapter 1: Let The Games Begin Part 1

**Primal Protectors**

 **Chapter 1: Let The Games Begin! Pt 1**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Power Rangers or the source material for this fic, Doubutsu Sentai Zyouhger or any other things referenced such as certain games.**

 **The characters appearing were made by: AyatoHattori, Dash master 48, KidF1ash, bobmanv2.0, Thewhatzupwriter26 and Me. Gadget The Critic is the man behind the monsters.**

In the spectacular city of Los Angeles, a great event was about to begin, but nobody suspected what was about to happen, the hardest game in the history of the human race was about to begin, and the world was in the hands of a group of unlikely individuals.

Lines and lines of people stood ready in front of the glass doors of a large convention center in the middle of the city, digital ID tags around their necks. then a loud voice came from a speaker.

"Are you ready?" He asked, excitement also in his voice. A cheer came from the queue of people at the front. "Then welcome to E3 2020!" He enthused as the doors opened and the many attendees piled into the building.

A young man, holding a map to the location with several times for different events and where they are next to it, looked around the entryway and looked really lost. He had short black hair, storm grey eyes, had tan skin and had an average build. He wore a black sleeveless hoodie, underneath that was a red t-shirt, he wore black jeans and black converse with red shoelaces.

"This map makes no sense, I can't even find where I am right now." He sighed looking at the complex symbols and lines upon it. 'Maybe I should just find my mother first' He thought to himself.

As he stood there amongst the crowd, he was shoulder barged to the side as a guy with blonde hair and a green hoodie, who was walking with someone, decided he couldn't strafe an inch and knocked the red clad male to the ground.

"Hey! Watch where you're going!" The young man yelled at the jerk that had done this to him. After the green clad nuisance had disappeared into the crowd. The young man got up and dusted himself off.

An older womans voice shouted over the videogame fans making their way into the expo. "Demetri! Where are you?!" The young man in red raised his hand.

"I'm over here!" The young man, now known as Demetri called.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

A tall young man stood behind someone sat down in a chair playing rather intense fantasy RPG. He had short light brown hair, green eyes and white skin. He was rather skinny. He wore a long sleeve yellow shirt with white cuffs. On the front, written in silver were the words YOLO. He wore grey cargo shorts, yellow trainers and a blue and yellow bandana around his neck.

Then, as the on screen avatar died to a rather tough looking enemy, a young woman came out of the seat.

"Looks like you lost again Jane, I don't really think this kind of RPG is for you." The yellow clad man said to the one known as Jane with a smirk.

"They're the ultra hard games where you HAVE to die, there's no way someone can complete something like that without losing once, I'm sure I could complete it when it comes out, but that demo was a nightmare. I'd like to see you try Darren." She said, as the two walked away from that game's booth he gave a laugh.

"That's exactly what I'm planning on doing. It might take me a while but I and Karn will conquer this game without dying, like the previous titles, me and my avatar will defeat this death game!" Darren enthused making his friend giggle.

"I love when you go all nerdy." She laughed. Darren was a little embarrassed that she just called his little speech nerdy.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

After a while of looking around the different booths and displays on about already announced games, Demetri sat down while he waited for his mom to return from the restroom. He looked next to him to see a young woman, slightly older than him, playing a game on a small device.

She had brown hair that went down to her shoulders, she had white skin and was fairly petite. She wore a white dress that went to her knees and wore a grey hoodie over it regardless.

Then out of nowhere she stood up, also revealing she was rather short at 5'5", and yelled out in victory. "I finally got you, you little scamp!" She cheered and laughed as she sat back down. Demetri was curious and decided to interact with the young woman.

"Hey there, I'm Demetri. Just wondering what all the cheering was about." He said, holding his hand out. She shook his hand and showed him the screen of the small device.

"You can call me Val. I finally got the last Pokemon, my Pokedex is complete!" She enthused, giving another giggle.

"Wait! You've caught all nine hundred and sixty three pokemon!?" He asked in shock, her smiling face dimmed a bit at that.

"No, not at all. I finished playing an original copy of Pokemon Silver and caught all the pokemon, including those in the late game, I even got a few shinies! You see I don't go all out on the new games. My passion is in the classics." She said, holding her hand to her chest.

"So, classics like Modern Warfare?" He asked, shooters being the only games he knew. She laughed and shook her head.

Val was about to say something else when another young woman who looked exactly like her called to her. "Looks like I've gotta go now, but if I see you around, I'm gonna call you newbie because you seem pretty new to games." She giggled as she went off, waving to Demetri as she did.

'Why are the cute ones always so crazy?" He asked in his head, giving a sigh out loud as he sat there waiting for his mother to return.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

Orbiting above the serene looking earth was a sight which was odd yet not very sinister. It appeared to be that of a gigantic black tower computer with a red and blue triangular design to it. At the back were four large engines that would usually belong on a star cruiser.

Within the bridge of this mechanical juggernaut, were a group of alien beings varying in appearance. The room had a similar design to that of the outside with a clock-like floor, a circle in the centre of the room.

Sat down on a chair of some kind, with a knightly figure in front of it, was a humanoid figure clad in spikes, his body was primarily silver with amber adornments and glowing white eyes. He was known as Pivillinous Cenoric.

Beside the lordly seat, stood an alien with more love for spikes than the previous, He seemed to be entirely made up of them and had a spiked hand cannon. His body was primarily red and had red eyes and there were hints of red all over his body. This one was known as Pike.

Next to Pike stood a feminine figure She had a primarily black body with orange hexagonal segments on her chest and knees. In addition to this she wore green over armour that looked rather organic. She had a grey face where her mouth was exposed, her lips seemed to be a teal colour. Her name was Meizong.

On the other side of the master Pivillinous, was an alien more representing of the classic ones of the alien conspiracy times. He was silver with an inflated head, he was a machine in truth. Sporting a golden mage-like overcoat and a long sort of blade from his arm. This villain was known as Fuse.

Finally, stood next to Fuse was a giant of an alien. He was composed of large blue blocks and also wore a golden plate cuirass over his body. Within his cuboid face was the upper half of his head. He wielded a large and rigid, almost blocky sword. The name of this final villain was Hexagon.

Pivillinous looked forward at a screen which showed the earth in view. "Well people, looks like we've got another planet to play on. Let's have a closer look at this place." He called from his seat, using his hand to signal the screen to magnify.

It zoomed in on the city of Los Angeles, more specifically, where E3 was being held. They observed as the view went inside the building and they saw all these video games being played and showcased.

"Master, that place is huge, like a gathering of warriors!" Pike observed.

"Indeed it does. They must be the strongest of the earth's warriors. We must send someone down for the first assault! Pike, get down there and make our existence known and achieve glory for the racers!" Pivillinous ordered. Pike hesitated when Meizong began to circle him.

"What's the matter Pike? Getting slow in your old age? Does someone need some help." She said in a youthful and snide voice.

Pike grunted. "They'll be no match for me, just you watch! I'll prepare some quarters for assault and get our poly fighters ready." He informed them, confidence in his voice as he left to prepare.

"I think this is gonna be fun, we may even get a few rounds out of this planet before we blast it to space dust!" Pivillinous enthused.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

Demetri was sat down with his mother watching two people go all out in a game. Then just as one character was about to land a power attack, the other player's avatar jumped up out ofthe way and back down onto the opposing player, finishing the character off with a barrage of punches.

When the game was over, from the controller booth out stepped a young woman and a slightly older man. She had a fair but tan skintone, long strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes, She was about 5'7" and had an athletic body tone. She wore a blue crop top, blue jeans and tennis shoes.

'Wow, she's really good at fighting games, to top that off she's rather pretty.' Demetri thought to himself then his eyes widened and his face went red. 'Oh no, I'm gonna set myself off, gotta find something to keep my mind off that!' He thought, luckily an announcement came through the speakers around the building.

"The Ander Tech presentation will begin in ten minutes. Please make your way there as soon as possible." The announcer said.

"Looks like that's us." He said to his mother, who nodded and they set off.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

Demetri sat down and noticed Val from earlier, who he waved to, she gave a small friendly wave back and began talking with presumably her sister again. Also on the front row was Darren from earlier, although he hadn't met him, he seemed familiar. He saw the young woman in blue again and decided to look the other way to keep himself from getting distracted. That's when he saw the Jerk that knocked him over earlier, only he got a good look at him now.

He had surfer blonde hair, sea blue eyes. He was 6'0" as he walked around the room to find a seat. He was rather thin, around average weight and he looked like he was strong despite his lack of much weight. He wore an unzipped green hoodie with a white shirt underneath it. On the shirt, in black letters, were the words 'Team Hades'. He wore navy blue jeans and white laced black vans. He had large framed glasses on his head.

After everyone was seated, the presentation began. From backstage came out a rather average looking middle aged man. There was nothing special about him really and he wore a light tan jacket, pants and a blue button up shirt.

"Welcome to the Ander Tech presentation everyone. My name is Clark Ander, lead developer of the company. Today, we're gonna show you something revolutionary. Not for just gaming, but for the whole world. So sit back and relax." As he finished his sentence, a short video played as he moved to the side.

"Since the very first computer, man has attempted to bridge the gap between the digital world and the real world. Though we have been unsuccessful thus far, we have come ever closer to that goal. And now, we present an evolutionary leap in technology. Where the gap is almost non-existent. May I present, the renderer." The voice on the video explained as it went dark, it was playing footage from different computer labs throughout the video. When it finished, the back wall of the stage parted and a pedestal with a button on it and a large mechanism came down from the ceiling.

Clark walked over as what was left of the screen displayed a red cube with the number 1 on it. "With this technology,we can take something that was digitally designed." He paused as the cube transformed into the shape of an eagle. "And bring it to the real world using the renderer." He finished. Pressing the button and the beam powered up, hitting the floor.

When it finished, a tiny cubic eagle was on the floor. Then it raised its wings and began to fly, the crowd was amazed by this.

"This is powered by a great technology we have invented and made mobile and pocket sized. That way you could render something on the go. The only issue is, there's only five of these in the world. Their creator left under unfortunate circumstances. For this, we have gathered five of the best gamers in the world to demonstrate the cubes. Can Demetri Black, Darren Buckler, Kyle Stone, Valerie Dawson and Penelope Askew please come to the stage." Demetri got up and saw the two girls he knew stand up, along with the jerk in green and the guy in yellow.

As the young man in red made his way to the stage, he noticed someone talking to the air next to him, because there was no one else there. He thought it was odd and shrugged it off and went to the stage too.

Clark handed them each a white cube, with a stony texture to it. "Now each of these will allow us to render a special suit over you, that way we can begin to bring gaming to the next level, in the real world. Just one minute and I'll get everything ready for this. They're currently locked, I just have to adjust-" He cut off as a stack of large green coins dropped from seemingly nowhere.

When they dispersed, Pike stood on the stage as people gasped in shock and awe. "I have come to battle this planet's warriors, so fight me if you dare!" He challenged. Clark walked up to the monster.

"Who are you? Why are you on my stage?" He asked, Pike raised his cannon arm and aimed it at the man.

"Out of my way weakling!" He said, blasting the man to the ground. People were shocked and began to run as the monster blasted at the room.

"A pity, I thought you would be a challenge! Yet if any of you have the spine to challenge the mighty Pike, then meet me in your city's woods." He challenged before teleporting away in the same fashion in which he arrived.

The five on the stage gathered around the fallen man. He was struggling to breathe. "Listen to me you five, you need to go find Flynn, he's in his arcade, on the other side of the city. You have to hurry." He said in breaths before he closed his eyes.

Demetri was the first to get up. "I'm gonna find this guy. Is anyone else in?" He asked, waiting for a response.

Val stood up next. "Well newbie, I'm in. If you're going, then I'm going too. You do need some experience on your side anyway." She smirked.

He gave a laugh. "I didn't know old people were into gaming." He joked back. Then Darren stood up.

"You guys seem pretty fun, sure I'll join your party in this quest." He told them, speaking in role playing terms.

Next to get up was Penelope. "That thing shot this dude, right before I was gonna get that power up. If he wants a fight, I'll give it to him!" She enthused.

Finally Kyle stood up. "I'll take part in this little game you're playing, but not for you or anyone else. I want to become the best gamer there is, and if this is what I need to do it, and I need to work with all you noobs, so be it." He told them, Demetri gave a quick frown and addressed them.

"We better get moving then." The other four nodded and the five of them ran off to find Flynn's Arcade, and the man behind it, in the city.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

After a long while of searching, they finally found the arcade. It was run down and looked like it hadn't been visited in years. With a bit of hesitation, the five of them entered.

"Hey! Is anyone in here? We're looking for Flynn!" Val called as they wandered around. The place was full of old and dusty arcade machines, which made Val feel comfortable in the place.

From round the back of the large room, and through a door, came a man in his thirties. He was wearing an olive green shirt with rather prominent pit stains on it and a pair of dark grey sweat pants. He had light brown hair in a perm, on top of his forehead were a pair of goggles.

"Arcade's closed, has been for a while. All the new games and home systems made sure of that, now I just own the place and live here. You should go." He told them.

"Please, we need to find Flynn. A man named Clark Ander sent us here with these." Demetri told him, presenting the five cubes to the man.

"What's that high and mighty snoot want now? He stole my work now he expects me to come back and work for him because he can't unlock them." He groaned.

"So you're Flynn then." Kyle observed.

"You're sharp aren't you. Name's Flynn Beckett. I do have a degree in computer science, but nobody cares about that now." He informed them.

"hate to break it to you but Clark got killed by a monster known as Pike, he said to come here and that you'd know what to do." Darren informed the man.

"So he kicked the bucket, karma does exist then. Well, aside from that, that monster is an alien. I've been watching an alien ship get closer to earth for a while now, that's all it can be. And those little devices, well, they aren't really devices yet. Clark thought there was a way to unlock them and never found out they were just a power source, a power source from a meteorite that crashed here a couple of years ago." He explained. "Follow me round back." He told them, though they did so with some hesitation.

The back wasn't as bad as the front but it had the appearance of a shut-in's room with a big old couch, in front of that was a large television with several consoles beneath it in a cabinet. Different games were stacked up in racks and a five monitor set up computer, one that looked rather powerful, even by current standards. On the computer desk were five cubes that had different symbols on each side. Flynn took them from the desk and handed one of the cubes to each of them.

"Place your cube in the opening of this device." He told them. When they did, the different sides lit up and a little sound came from the devices as they became active. "The render cubes are now active with this device being their output source. The devices themselves are known as Rubik Primers. When you find this alien, Pike, flip open the Primers and press your individual buttons, 1 through 5, then press the red button. After you've done that, face the beast image away from you and twist the top section to match it, when you do this shout the words 'Primordial Powers, Awaken' and the rest should come to you." He informed them.

"Jeez, you're worse than a tutorial guy, can we just get going?" Kyle asked in an irritated voice.

"Get going, and good luck." He said as they departed.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

In the forest, Pike stood flipping a coin in his hand, waiting for any challenger. Then he saw them approach. The five of them came into view and Pike began to laugh. "I see that you five have come to challenge me, but where are your weapons? Do you wish yourselves to be defeated se easily?" He asked as he looked at the five.

"We might not look like much but there's more to us than what meets the eye. You guys ready?" Demetri asked.

"Ready!" The other four confirmed.

"One, Eagle!" "Two, Shark!" "Three, Lion!" "Four, Elephant!" "Five, Tiger!" The morpher announced as they pressed their individual buttons. "Beasts Ready!" It finished as they pressed down on the red button in the centre and closed the Primers.

They held it in front of them and they twisted the top to complete the picture of the five animals together. "Primordial Powers, Awaken!" They called in unison.

 **-Morphing Sequence-**

Each of the five rangers were running through an infinite tunnel made of Zeroes and Ones, a pixelated grass ground under their feet. As they ran, suits made purely of their colour, a white collar around them formed on their bodies. Soon joined by white boots and gloves with a black jagged trimming to them. Then around their waists formed a silver belt with the same beast symbol as their morphers. A pixelated pattern formed on each of the front of their suits before a burst of white energy formed each pattern into a high detailed image of the animal of each person covering the front. Then over each of their heads formed helmets, one, red in the style of the eagle, the next, blue in the style of the shark. The third was yellow, in the style of the lion, After that was a green helmet in the form of an elephant, complete with tusks. Finally was a white helmet, themed on the tiger. The two female rangers wore skirts of their colour over their suits.

 **-Morphing Sequence-**

The five teens stood in a line looking at the new suits. After they had gotten a good look, they stood ready to let Pike know who they are.

"Lord of the skies! Primal Protector Red!" Demetri started.

"Predator of the deep! Primal Protector Blue!" Nel called.

"King of the jungle! Primal Protector Yellow!" Darren roared.

"Behemoth of the Forest! Primal Protector Green!" Kyle pumped his arm.

"Stalker of the blizzard! Primal Protector White!" Val finished.

"Virtual Players, Real Heroes! Power Rangers, Primal Protectors!" They all called as plumes of smoke in their colours went off behind them, followed by an explosion.

 **To be continued…**

 **|Primal Protectors|**

 **That is Part 1 of the first chapter. Now I could've put it all into one, but it'd be extremely long. Mainly for all the introductions made here. So this is my first attempt at doing an adaption and I think I've put enough in here for a good premise to the story to start off with. Note I did change some of my ideas before I actually got into writing this. The next chapter will likely be out in the next week, cause now I'm moving onto the cross-over.**

 **I did promise this before the end of February but life meddles with my plans and it took a few day but I managed to get this done. So let me know what you think so far and this'll be back next week with the second half of the beginning. So here's a preview of that.**

 **Next Chapter: Let The Games Begin Pt 2**

 **Synopsis: Picking up from where we left off, the newest rangers face off against Pike, one of the players of the Racers, an alien gaming based clan owned by Pivillinous Cenoric, and fight his minions along with him. Can they succeed? What other things are in store for this group? Find out next time on Power Rangers: Primal Protectors.**


	2. Chapter 2: Let The Games Begin Part 2

**Primal Protectors**

 **Chapter 2: Let The Games Begin! Pt 2**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Power Rangers or the source material for this fic, Doubutsu Sentai Zyouhger or any other things referenced such as certain games.**

 **The characters appearing were made by: AyatoHattori, Dash master 48, KidF1ash, bobmanv2.0, Thewhatzupwriter26 and Me. Gadget The Critic is the man behind the monsters.**

"Lord of the skies! Primal Protector Red!" Demetri started.

"Predator of the deep! Primal Protector Blue!" Nel called.

"King of the jungle! Primal Protector Yellow!" Darren roared.

"Behemoth of the Forest! Primal Protector Green!" Kyle pumped his arm.

"Stalker of the blizzard! Primal Protector White!" Val finished.

"Virtual Players, Real Heroes! Power Rangers, Primal Protectors!" They all called as plumes of smoke in their colours went off behind them, followed by an explosion.

Pike laughed and flipped a coin high in the air. "Impressive performance, players… But if you want to fight me, you'll have to get through my servants first. Quarters attack!" He yelled as the coin landed on the floor.

When it did, several creatures, goblin-like in appearance with blue suits, golden body armour and white mask faces emerged and headed towards them.

"Any of you noobs got a plan?" Kyle asked, to see that Demetri had already ran into the large group of quarters.

He landed a heavy punch on one of the minions, only to be overwhelmed and knocked back by the Quarters, struggling to get up as they pinned him down.

"Looks like newbie's gotten himself into some trouble." Val said to the others.

"Seeing as the idiot in red went in without backup and got overwhelmed, I suggest we keep close and take them out one by one." Kyle told the others who nodded and followed the green ranger's lead.

They ran into the group of Quarters where Kyle landed an uppercut on one and sent it to the ground. Using her elbows, Nel struck the Quarters around her and sent them backwards. Meanwhile, Val had managed to stand herself up on a quarter where she dealt sweeping punches which took out multiple Quarters before beating the mounted Quarter to the ground. Finally, Darren dealt a few strikes to the Quarters around him before the four regrouped and felt a surge of energy.

"Woah, haven't felt power like this before." Nel commented before a voice called back.

"Flynn here." The voice, belonging to Flynn, called. "Looks like you've got enough energy to unlock your primal power ups. All you need to do is embrace that power and let the change take effect." He informed them.

They allowed the energy to unleash where an astounding metamorphosis occurred. "Primal Power ups, Unleash!" They called. Nel gained a shark fin upon her back, while Darren and Val gained claws upon their hands. Finally, Kyle had developed literal elephant feet.

"You guys get claws? I wanted to have the fighter style, I guess the fin's fine though." Nel laughed.

"What am I supposed to do with these, stomp them to death? In fact, that isn't such a bad idea." Kyle said to himself as the clawed yellow and white rangers high fived each other.

Nel sped through the lines of Quarters, spinning like a sharp watery disk as she cut through them. Darren then unleashed crackling lightning strikes as he clawed at the Quarters. Next up, Kyle unleashed a devastating stomps, almost on the scale of an earthquake that rumbled the ground and caused the minions to lose their footing. It also helped shake Demetri loose of the Quarters hold on him. Finally, Val unleashed a quick dual claw attack that decimated the remaining minions.

Pike stepped up and gave a small clap. "Not bad. Now for level two." He smirked as he flipped another coin in the air."

From his place on the ground, Demetri yelled at the monster. "Why don't you come face us you coward!" Darren shook his head.

"Don't get impatient, we need as much experience and loot as possible before the boss battle." The other three looked at him. "What?" he asked. The others shook their heads at his overuse of gaming terms.

A group of flying Quarters, using some sort of blasting weapon came overhead as they headed for the boss, impatient. That was when Flynn called again.

"I hate being the tutorial guy, but I'm sending you the pixelator through the renderer technology, it'll act as both a blaster and a sword depending on your configuration. Just slide out the one at the front and slide it into the back to change mode. Flynn out." He said before a mass of pixels infested their hands, bursting into a handle with two cubes, one red and one blue.

The red one was at the front and each of the four rangers flipped out the blade from it and headed towards Pike, who sent a volley of blasts at them, which they managed to dodge and block as they got into melee range. Once there, the blue, yellow and white rangers began to slash at Pike who dodged and blocked most of their moves. Kyle had reconfigured his pixelator into a blaster and took his time to get and opening before shooting and blasting Pike backwards, then he headed in with the Pixelator in its blade form to aid the others.

"Great shot there, but we've still got these flying quarters to deal with as well." Darren congratulated, as they rolled out of the way of a chain of blasts hit the ground from above.

Then from all sides, the four rangers got blasted to the ground. As Nel got back up, she failed to notice Pike walking up behind her. He punched her in the gut and the blue ranger fell to the floor. Then Darren charged with his blade Pixelator only to be blasted back to the ground by Pike's arm mounted cannon.

As the two fallen rangers got back up, beside their other two allies, whilst being bombarded by blasts from the flying Quarters, Pike charged up a four hit attack from his arm cannon.

"Looks like the game's over power rangers." He laughed. Just as he did, Demetri broke free of the Quarters pinning him down and began fighting them with his fists.

He noticed that Pike was ready to finish them. "No!" He yelled as Pike unleashed the powerful four hit blast, which targeted the individual rangers and knocked them to the ground, where they struggled to get up.

Just as pike was about to unleash a final attack on the four grounded rangers, Demetri kicked his arm cannon off course and the blast headed off into the distance of LA's wooded area. Pike proceeded to pick the ranger up and throw him in front of the ground, in front of the other four.

"What're you doing you complete idiot! You shouldn't sacrifice yourself when we don't stand a chance of winning, you wait for your chance, not jump into the fray when the odds are against you!" Kyle criticised.

Demetri stood on one knee. "I've never lost a fight, and I won't start now, not when lives are at stake. The lives of this world. They're in our hands, and if you guys are too hurt to fight, it means it's my duty to protect you too. I'm not giving up!" He proclaimed, standing on his feet again.

"Such a pitiful human, too bad you're on your last life, and I intend to take it." Pike laughed as he powered up one final blast.

"I will never stop fighting!" Demetri yelled as the blast was sent towards him.

A read aura surged through demetri as the blasts hit him, as the flames engulfed the red ranger, the others cried out in terror. But when the smoke cleared, he was still standing, now sporting a pair of red wings attached to his suit. "Primal Power up, Unleashed!" He called, tailoring it to have already occurred.

"Gah! Quarters get him!" Pike yelled as the jetpack equipped quarters swooped down and headed towards the winged ranger.

"Let's take this to the skies." Demetri smirked under his helmet as he flew up in a blur of red. The Quarters soon followed into the aerial battle.

As the Quarters flew around, attempting to blast the blur of the red ranger to the ground, they were taken out one by one by the speed and ferocity of the ranger that resembled an eagle. With his wings, he slashed two of the Quarter's jetpacks, sending them off course and colliding with two more of the minions and causing two large explosions.

"This is better than quickscoping!" Demetri laughed as he swooped through the sky.

"That's a good trick, red! But it isn't as good as my explosive volley!" Pike boasted as he let off several powerful blasts from his hand cannon.

Each one was easily dodged by the swiftness Demetri had with his wings. The red ranger proceeded to slash the last of the Quarters, when it was destroyed, a simple sword dropped from its body which Demetri picked up.

"Hey, rare drop!" Darren called as he and the others saw the red ranger pick it up as they rose, now healing from their wounds.

The sword then changed to be themed upon the eagle like his suit with a sort of rigid blade to it. "This is nice, let's call it, the eagle chain blade!" He announced as he held it high while he floated in the sky.

Then he dropped down, bringing the chain blade down and slashing Pike with it, who staggered back in response. After an exchange of blows, Pike kicked Demetri back and he flew through the air towards a tree.

He closed his eyes. "Oh no this is gonna hurt!" He cried out, holding his blade towards the tree, but he didn't feel any pain and saw that the chain blade had configured into a whip and wrapped around the tree, allowing him to touch down on the ground safely. "Nice, looks like this was lucky." He said, relieved he was safe.

Demetri then flung the chain blade's whip at Pike who stammered as it slashed at him like a vicious sea serpent. Then Demetri ran in and landed a jump kick on Pike who couldn't block the ranger in time. When Pike was knocked back by another slash from the blade, it coiled around him and immobilised the deadly player.

"I c-can't move! Let go of me you stupid gamer!" He called as he struggled against the serrated whip.

"Not a chance. Chain blade searing strike!" Demetri called as he turned around and pulled the whip towards him, which superheated the metal with each shard making contact.

"No! This can't be game over!" Pike yelled as he surged with energy and exploded into a mass of pixels.

Demetri shouldered the chain blade and walked towards the recovered rangers who ran over to him.

"Nice job hotshot!" Nel complimented.

"Cool weapon, open to a trade?" Demetri asked.

"You're pretty good newbie, even if you do only play FPS." Val joked.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

Back inside the racers command ship, Meizong was laughing at the footage of Pike getting destroyed by the red ranger.

"Oh wow, that was fun. Hey fuse! Play it again!" She laughed, before Pivillinous spoke up.

"Ah, he was slow in his old age, a pretty terrible team leader too. Maybe I'll hand the teams over to you two idiots next!" He laughed, commenting on the incompetence of Fuse and Hexagon, who grumbled in response. "Anyway, he did pay the microtransaction for an extra life, so Meizong, my dear niece, get on it!" He ordered.

"Ugh fine, better than watching him get destroyed for the next five hours." She groaned. Pulling out a small alien themed tablet with the words "Doxin Battlepad" on it. Despite this, she put it up to her ear like a phone and it began to ring. After a few minutes, the call was picked up. "Hey Jeffrey, You know Pike? Big sharp and ugly. Kinda looks like someone stabbed pins into a load of cylinders. Yeah, mr cannon arm, that's right. Well, he kinda got destroyed and he did pay for an extra life, so could you be a dear and get that done for me? Okay, thanks, love you too Jeffrey, Byee!" She said, sounding a lot like a human teenager.

Upon the screen, from the ashes, two large white words appeared in front of the burned remains of Pike.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

Two words in large white text appeared above the remains of Pike, then a deep booming voice relayed the words above Pike's remains. "Extra Life!" The voice called and the rangers shuddered.

"Since when did the guy who voices the mortal kombat fatalities start working for aliens?" Nel asked, commenting on the voice. Just then the ground shuddered and a humongous version of Pike arose from the ground.

"It's good to be back! I may be on my last life and I might be in debt to that wretched little Meizong, but at least I get to crush you fools!" He rejoiced as he stomped the ground with his gigantic feet.

"Flynn, we kinda have a huge problem." Demetri said into his helmet comm.

"I can see, and that's what your Primers are for. Open them up, press your number and press the yellow cube, I'm sure you can work the rest out from there." He explained as they all took out their Rubik Primers and opened them up.

"1! 2! 3! 4! 5! Primal mounts ready!" The morphers called as they closed them and linked up the image of the cube. "Primal mounts awaken!" The morpher called as a coloured and pixelated cube materialised in front of each ranger and grew to giant proportion before a burst of white energy transformed them to become more detailed with numbers on the front of each one.

Then the five rangers jumped up inside the five cubes. Each of them were sat in individual rooms, stone grey chairs, the Primal Protectors symbol on the wall behind them with large stone grey columns either side of it the framework of a box, in their individual colours bordered the outside of their control space and a small cube, standing on its corner, coloured in their colour with a white border around it and a number from one to five in the middle.

Each ranger slotted their Primer into a cubic gap in the control cube and span the control cube around.

"Primal Eagle, flying high!" Demetri called as it folded out into an eagle.

"Primal Shark, jaws sharp!" Nel confirmed and it changed from a cube to a shark.

"Primal Lion, roaring on!" Darren exclaimed as it flipped out becoming a lion.

"Primal Elephant, ready to stomp!" Kyle said as it folded and changed into an elephant.

"Primal Tiger, running fast!" Val finished as the last of the zords flipped out from its cube form.

"Primal mounts ready!" They all called as they charged as one.

From above the atmosphere the poly fighters began to descend, a pyramid in shape with a black paint job and a golden point. Pike then unleashed a few blasts from his hand cannon which hit the ranger's zords head on. The rangers managed to hold on as the poly fighters got into place. Then they unleashed green blots of energy that caused the zords to break formation.

"I'll take care of them!" Demetri told them and headed off.

From his cockpit, Kyle yelled out. "What are you doing you stupid neet!? Don't break formation, you'll get us all killed!"

"Relax, just focus on spikey there!" Demetri laughed as the Primal Eagle rose up and dodged the poly fighters' blasts.

As a few blast were about to make impact with the eagle, it closed up into a cube and blocked the attacks. When it was ready, it opened back up and unleashed its own red beams upon the poly fighters and obliterated them.

Kyle grunted. "Lucky shot." He said as Demetri rejoined the other five.

After the last of the fighters were blasted away by the Primal Lion's lightning shots, the Primal Eagle advanced upon Pike,Slamming against him in cube form before falling back and returning to its eagle state.

"Flynn here, one last thing. if you each press your buttons and press the blue button, some boxes should come up, pilot your zords through them and close up your cube, form it to the robot symbol, but remember only three of you are getting in, a bit of developer nerfing if you will." He explained to him as the five did that.

"1! 2! 3! 4! 5! Protector Mech,initialised!" The morpher called as yellow squares materialised.

"Well, guys, I'll race you!" Demetri challenged as they sped towards the floating squares. The eagle flew through the middle transforming into a cube as it did. Then on the left, the shark followed suit, as did the lion on the right. The tiger and elephant attempted to go through but clashed against a barrier when they did.

"Better luck next time!" Darren laughed as the cubes formed in the air landing on top of each other.

"3! 2! 1! Primal Warrior, Engage!" Their morphers called as the cubes landed on top of each other. Then a pixelated object fell from the sky, rendering into a spike with a red cube structure atop it, it landed in a circular gap that had formed, going down to the bottom zord.

From the sides, the arms of the megazord flipped out,as did the Eagle's head in its chest. then a small dial turned at the top of the head to reveal the face. Finally the megazords eyes litup in vibrant green as it grabbed ahold of a rendered sword and stood ready.

"Primal Warrior, Player Ready!" The red, blue and yellow rangers called.

The three rangers span around their cubes and the megazord stomped forward. "Your human engineering is no match for my handcannon!" Pike boasted as he blasted at the newly formed megazord.

No matter how many times he blasted, the rangers held on and raised the sword at Pike as they got close. Pike blocked their first attack but the Primal Warrior managed to slash his body twice afterwards, catching him off guard. The Primal Warrior dealt a powerful blow while the Tiger and Elephant Zords blasted Pike afterwards.

Inside the megazord cockpit, the three rangers assembled the Primal Protector symbol and slotted it into their control cubes.

"Let's end this!" The three called. "Sixteen bit Strike!" They all called as the megazord took the sword around anti-clockwise, before striking Pike with all its might.

Pike began to pixilate. "Not again! Not to humans!" He cried as he pixelated and evaporated.

"Game Over!" The five of them called.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

The five rangers returned to Flynn's arcade where they stood cheering about their first victory.

"So, that was pretty good for a first attempt, believe me, sometimes you can end up in some weird places." Flynn told them. "But these guys won't stop. I need you all to stay here in LA. So while I'm working on that, could you guys clean up the Arcade? It's rather dusty and if we get it in shape, it'll serve as a good ranger base in my opinion." He finished.

"You want us to stay here?! Are you nuts? I'm not risking my life with these noobs ever again, I'm out of here!" Kyle yelled and headed off.

Demetri was about to go after him but was stopped. "Let him go. I have a feeling he'll come around soon enough. in the meantime, you guys get started on cleaning this place up!" Flynn told them, handing them new cleaning supplies. The four of them gave a groan as he did. "I hate cleaning too, why do you think I'm making you do it?" He laughed and caused them to smirk as they got on with the job.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

Kyle was walking the sunny streets when a young man in a hood bumped into him. "Stick to the shadows, don't listen to the voices." He said to the green ranger before running off.

'What the hell was that about?' Kyle thought as he kept walking.

 **|Primal Protectors|**

 **That is the second half of the first episode of Primal Protectors. They received their zords, defeated pike and now they've gotta clean up a dusty old arcade, that's ranger life for you. Too bad Kyle isn't into it yet, but I'm certain that'll change soon. There were some funny moments with our villains and there's a crazy person running around. So let me hear your thought and here's to the next chapter at the end of may.**

 **Next Chapter: Player - Jerk**

 **Synopsis: In our first character focus we follow Kyle as he tries so hard to reject his calling as a ranger. Can his teammates convince him, or does he need a lot more than words from his new peers? What will the new ranger base look like and will Welkin Stross ever make an appearance? (Just kidding with that last one… or am I?) Find out next time on Power Rangers: Primal Protectors.**


	3. Chapter 3: Player - Jerk

**Primal Protectors**

 **Chapter 3: Player - Jerk**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Power Rangers or the source material for this fic, Doubutsu Sentai Zyouhger or any other things referenced such as certain games.**

 **The characters appearing were made by: AyatoHattori, Dash master 48, KidF1ash, bobmanv2.0, Thewhatzupwriter26 and Me. Gadget The Critic is the man behind the monsters.**

The streets were rather busy with panicked citizens after the initial attack of the Racers and the team leader Pike on the previous day. Though the new ranger team had defeated their first adversary, there were many battles to come, but to overcome the challenges they would face, first they would have to deal with trouble on the homefront.

Through the busy streets of afternoon Los Angeles, Kyle Stone stolled alone thinking back to the events that had transpired and him leaving the others to handle the situation themselves. Though he wanted to help, he couldn't stand some of the members of the group,and he feared they'd get him killed at some point.

Kyle saw a bench just up ahead and sat down, giving a sigh as he did and planting his lowered head into his hands as he did. 'What should I do? One one hand, those things are gonna destroy the world if I don't help, but if it's my life on the line…" His train of thought trailed off as he began to ponder the situation more deeply.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

Back at the arcade, the other rangers had just finished cleaning up the place and it looked in much better condition now. The sheets over the different machines had been taken off and put away and now different machines lined the room, whilst most were inactive, there were a few that were operational which seemed to go with their play styles along with an air hockey table near the back which Darren and Nel were using,slamming the puck from one side to another in a deadlock.

Demetri slumped down in a chair near by after he had finished giving all the screens a good wipe. He gave a sigh of relief as the cleaning process ended. To his dismay, he looked up to see Flynn with a serious face on.

"No time for slouching, we gotta rearrange some of these machines to make way for a few more things. Lets get to it!" He ordered to Demetri and the two rangers playing air hockey.

"Wait! Where'd Val go?" Demetri burst out as he stood up realising that the white ranger had suddenly disappeared.

Darren's eyes widened as he remembered something from only a few minutes ago. "While you were polishing up the screens and we were… testing the air hockey table, I saw her leave the building with her belongings, you don't think she went after Kyle do you?" He recounted to them.

"If so, she's determined, I'll give her that." Demetri sighed, Flynn gave them a sharp look to get on with moving the machines, which almost caused Nel to jump out of her skin.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

Back within the Racers command ship, Pivillinous sat looking at the clock like monitor before him. It was an image of earth as their ship orbited above it.

"It looks pretty peaceful from here…" The villain murmured to himself as he took a drink from the glass chalice in his hand. Then he gave a small chuckle. "But you all know how I hate peace. I enjoy planetary conquest so much, such sport, and with the galactic rankings changing again this year, the Racers clan is sure to be at the top of the leaderboard! Especially when this is a big milestone for us. But enough of that. Let's have some fun!" He laughed again before taking another sip.

Meizong turned to him with a pouty face. "But uncle! You promised I could go shopping today!" She complained which caused the villain to sigh.

Hexagon butted into the conversation. "Why did we even agree to take care of this pouty brat? Honestly, she can't even play the game, unlike a champion such as I." Meizong growled in response.

"You're both hopeless, even if you are a champion, you still can't match my intellect and cunning. Alas the game of chance has gone in your favour and you get to begin, I only hope the downfall of your imbeciles on team fight is quick so that I and those on team fuse can wipe out these good for nothing humans quickly." Fuse gloated, mocking their intellect.

Pivillinous spoke up. "Now now you two. How about this. Both team fuse and team fight will have their in wiping out these lowly humans. Yet, whoever wipes out the most and amuses me the most will get my grand prize! So much loot you'll not know what to do with it all!" He exclaimed, the two villains rubbed their chins and smirked.

Meizong shook her head in embarrassment. "Men, I swear there's something up with them when someone even mentions the word loot." She murmured.

"Now, Hexagon. Who's your first player?" Pivillinous asked.

A door slid open behind Hexagon. "Allow me to present Strikedart, a Moizon and a rather renowned warrior.

Strikedart stepped forward, he was primarily red and blue and appeared look primarily like a dart board while having fishlike traits to him too. He carried a giant of a spear with him.

"YAAAARGH!" He yelled as he came in, causing Hexagon to wonder why he had chosen Strikedart, a really obnoxious Moison, in the first place. "What is going on PC my man!" He greeted Pivillinous so casually. "And who is this?" He asked getting closer to Meizong. "Hey, baby, wanna go out sometime?" He asked, putting on his 'charm' Hexagon couldn't take any more of the annoyance his subordinate was giving him and grabbed him by the neck, dragging him to the teleporter in the centre of the room.

"Get down to earth you idiot and don't come back till there's nothing but ash left." Hexagon ordered as a pile of coins slammed down on Strikedart, sending him down to earth. "I swear down he's as egotistical as you, Fuse." Hexagon insulted and went to the door. "I think I'm gonna lie down, I've got a headache…" He groaned as he left.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

Back on the streets, Val was walking around, trying not to get absorbed by the mass of people walking the streets of LA in the lunch rush hour. That's when she saw a familiar face sat on a bench a few metres away. Yet he looked like he was either sulking or in deep thought.

When she got to the bench, she asked him a question first. "Mind if I sit here?" He was still in his train of thought but he still replied. "Go ahea-" He stopped as he looked to see Val sit down beside him, not sure if he was just imagining it, he only thought of one thing to ask. "Val?" She smirked and gave a nod.

"It's me, yeah. So, how are you?" She asked, Kyle took his hands off of his head from his leant over position and straightened himself up.

"I'm still not sure. I don't wanna be stuck as a simple gamer all my life and I know this is a big opportunity, and it's about helping others. But I'm afraid to risk my life, unlike that guy that's trying to get himself killed from what I can tell. I keep imagining the worst possible scenarios, and I just don't wanna go through that." He sighed as he stood up.

Val headed after him. "Wait up!" She called, going after him. "you don't have to think like that. We might be new to this and all but we're a team. You can expect the worst but that's only gonna happen if you aren't there to help and give your expertise. I know how good you are with strategy, without that, we'll likely fail."

"Tell that to your leader." He said as he disappeared into the crowd.

"Hey Val! Over here!" Exclaimed a voice identical to the intended target of the yelling.

Val turned to see the young woman, who looked identical to her, walk towards her and wrap her arms around her.

"Hey sis, where've you been?" Val's sister asked, finishing the hug.

"Gabrielle, it's a looong story." She sighed.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

Atop a tall office building in the business district of Los Angeles, Strikedark stood looking confident.

"The game starts with Strikedart!" He exclaimed, using his spear as a sort of air guitar before raising it to the sky where a large dark stormcloud formed.

From the menacing cloud fell large spears much like the one he carried, impacting on the ground and causing much devastation. People ran in fear as explosions happened all around them.

Strikedart laughed as he watched civilians flee in terror. "The game's only just begun!"

Below, and in the midst of the chaos was Kyle, he was close to a spear and had been knocked to the ground by the resulting explosion and had managed to get up though due to the effects of the blast, his hearing was currently impaired. All he could hear was a high pitched tone and many ordinary people were left helpless in the chaos.

He wanted to help, but he knew he couldn't do it alone.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

Val was back with the others after her failed attempt at convincing Kyle to return, yet relaying the conversation to the others caused Demetri to go out on his own and leave the three of them to wait.

It wasn't long until an alert went off on Flynn's computer set up in the centre of the room. The new mentor rushed over to see what was going on and the others gathered around soon after.

"What's going on?" Darren asked as Flynn opened up the alert.

"I built a program to search social media as a way to detect any alien attacks to the city, it looks like right now there's some kind of target monster destroying everything with spears. You guys need to keep him busy." Flynn explained to them.

"What about Demetri and Kyle? We need their help too." Nel asked. Flynn swivelled in his chair to face her.

"I'll try to contact them, but for now, you guys need to keep him busy and from harming any more civilians. Got it?" He asked, the three nodded and headed out to deal with Strikedart, unsure if they could handle him with their shortage of members.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

Strikedart stood atop a block of concrete in a ruined area as spears rained down upon the area of the city he was attacking. "Hexagon thought this would be a hard task for me! Well I'll show him just how great I am! YAAAARGH!" He yelled, sending more spears down from the sky.

He jumped down and began walking over to the immobile injured when a figure in red charged forward and landed a punch on Strikedart's face, sending the monster backwards.

"Wha- Who the hell are you and WHY DID YOU HURT MY PRECIOUS FACE!?" Strikedart asked, enraged that a human had managed to strike him.

"I'm Demetri Black, I'm not letting you hurt any more people today, you walking target!" He declared, insulting the Racer.

"How dare you call me a walking target! I am Strikedart, the most famous of the Mosion!" He yelled in outrage.

Kyle was watching from a distance as he heard what the red ranger had said. Even if he wasn't serious and was sarcastic most of the time, his heart was in the right place.

Demetri ran forward and began hitting Strikedart with as much as he could when Darren, Val and Nel came onto the scene. Taking the opportunity, Strikedart picked up his opponent and threw him into the others who were only a few metres away. Despite the momentary injury, the four managed to stand up, bruised but not seriously injured.

"Demetri! You okay?" Darren asked as he helped the red ranger to his feet.

He let out a breath. "I'll be fine, let's just take him out."

Nel looked at him. "Even without Kyle here? We might now be able to take him on, you know how it was last time with only four members." She asked, concerned they'd be beaten.

From his hiding spot, to the left of them, behind some rubble, out he stepped. "You don't need to worry about this time. I might have been scared and angry at first, but now I understand. This isn't a choice, sometimes greatness it thrust upon us. Even if we don't want that greatness, that power, we must use it and wield it for those who don't have the power or the ability to protect themselves. And now I see, even if you guys don't seem like it, are willing to do so. Therefore I have to do the same!" He declared stepping in line.

"We're all glad you changed your mind. Ready?" Demetri asked.

Kyle smirked. "Just don't go off on your own hot shot." Demetri smirked in reply. Each of them pulled out their Rubik Primer and flipped it open.

"One, Eagle!" "Two, Shark!" "Three, Lion!" "Four, Elephant!" "Five, Tiger!" The morpher announced. Pressing the centre red button, the morpher sounded again. "Beasts Ready!" It confirmed before they closed the primers ready to morph.

Holding it out they turned the top section around three times to complete the image of their beasts before calling out. "Primordial Powers, Awaken!"

To outside parties, the five were overlaid by a stream of pixels varied by their individual colour. Then with a burst of white energy, the five stood ready.

"Lord of the skies! Primal Protector Red!" Demetri started.

"Predator of the deep! Primal Protector Blue!" Nel called.

"King of the jungle! Primal Protector Yellow!" Darren roared.

"Behemoth of the forest! Primal Protector Green!" Kyle pumped his arm.

"Stalker of the blizzard! Primal Protector White!" Val finished.

"Virtual Players, Real Heroes! Power Rangers, Primal Protectors!" They called.

Strikedart span his spear around and chuckled. "I didn't realise the circus was in town, lucky me."

Darren pointed at Strikedart. "If you wanted to see a freak, you should've just looked in the mirror!" He called, infuriating the Racer.

"YAAAARGH! I'll get you for that yellow ranger!" Strikedart yelled out in anger.

"We should be careful with this one, he's very volatile, best bet is to do quick strikes and not get caught up, if we do, it might lead to something going wrong. Oh, and it might be best if we don't infuriate him any more than we have." Kyle told them all, showing off his superior tactical mind.

"You got it dude." Darren chuckled.

Strikedart sent a wave of energy out from his spear which cut through the five rangers and knocked them to the ground.

Kyle winced. "Damn, didn't account for that."

As they got up, Penelope turned her head to him. "Don't worry, you'll get it right next time."

Val also jumped into the conversation. "Besides, none of us really got hurt."

Demetri also spoke up. "Only thing that matters now is beating Strikedart, if we mess up a little, that's okay. But I won't lose a single game, not to anyone, even this Racer!" Demetri declared, his tone changing completely as the battle for him had really begun.

The five charged forward as the red ranger produced the eagle chain blade and once in melee range, Demetri landed a strike on the monster with the sword. The yellow and blue rangers ran up to the dazed Strikedart and grabbed ahold of his arms to keep him restrained as the white and green rangers came in and hit Strikedart in the chest. As soon as they did, the Racers strength overpowered theirs and he knocked them off with a spinning technique which sent them back.

Yet Demetri was prepared and ran in as soon as his teammates were away to deal another attack with his chain blade. Yet Strikedart managed to block the sword with his spear and now the two weapons were locked. As the others got up, the young red ranger pushed forward and forced Strikedart to step back, yet he pushed the ranger to the side as the others regrouped.

Strikedart panted for breath. "Man, you guys are more difficult than I thought. Time to call in some backup!" He said, pulling out a handful of coins and flipping them up into the air. When they landed a group of armed Quarters rose up and charged toward the rangers.

The rangers wrestled with the Quarters as Strikedart barked orders at the minions. Then Demetri dispatched of one and was about to attack the monster, yet Strikedart saw it coming at the last second and ran out of the way.

"It'll take more than that, red!" He mocked as another Quarter began fighting with Demetri, the red ranger let out a growl after missing his chance.

He quickly parried the Quarter's weapon away and gave it a quick slash before knocking out a Quarter who was trying to sneak up on him by giving it an elbow directly to the face.

"Primal Power ups, Unleash!" The five of them called, donning their different animal themed power ups.

Using the speed gained from her finn, Nel was too quick for her Quarter opponent and twisted its arms causing it to drop its weapon before slashing it and another with her fast attack ability. She then became a wheel of compact high speed water, smashing into a large group of Quarters, decimating their ranks. When she decelerated and returned to normal, she let out a little giggle to express her enjoyment.

Darren wrapped his legs around a Quarter and took it to the ground before standing back up. He looked around him.

"You have me surrounded? You poor aliens." He laughed as he let off a surge of lightning from his claws as he span around defeating each of the Quarters around him.

Kyle braced for impact as the weapons the minions wielded came down on his arms, he struggled against them, but saw they were only focused on weakening his arms, yet all his attack power was currently in his legs. He jumped into the air and crashed down into the ground, causing a quake which destroyed the Quarters.

Val let off quick and powerful claw strikes while changing opponent, wearing them down bit by bit. Then she leapt up into a tree and let out a volley of slashed from atop the tree.

"Death from above!" She laughed.

Demetri swooped down with his wings as the others fought the remaining Quarters becoming a red spinning whirlwind and ploughing through the remaining minions, leaving only Strikedart left to fend for himself.

The five lined back up, ready to finish off the nuisance of a villain. "If Quarters won't defeat you. Take my spear volley!" He yelled, charging up his spear. It struck out at them with quick lunging strikes which they managed to avoid before it smashed into the ground between them.

Yet the rangers were ready and held it in place as best they could, causing Strikedart to struggle to pull it back up. The five pulled out their Pixelators and changed it to blaster mode, firing off at Strikedart while he struggled to retrieve his weapon.

It hit him head on and caused him to barrel to the floor, surging with energy. He looked up to see the red and green rangers running towards him and firing shots at him.

Strikedart managed to get up as the two got in close range and began to kick and punch him, Kyle helped Demetri duck under an attack by linking their arms before the two put their Pixelators point blank to Strikedart's body.

"Let's do it together." Demetri said.

"Right." Kyle confirmed as they let off two shots into Strikedart.

The Racer fell back as the five stood side by side and switched to sword mode.

"Group attack!" Demetri called.

"Primal bonds, beast slash!" They all called, jumping into the air and forming five claws of energy comprised of their individual colours and bearing down on Stikedart, causing an explosion and making him a mass of pixels on impact.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

It was only Hexagon and Pivillinous in the viewing room currently. The former let out an irritated growl. "That idiot was too impulsive and careless! Now wonder he got beaten! I've got a good mind to leave him be, but he is a premium player. Now where's Meizong. And that weirdo Fuse for that matter?"

Pivillinous took a sip from his chalice. "I sent him shopping with Meizong, she wouldn't stop nagging me about it, and I'd rather sit here and watch this!" He explained. Hexagon chuckled as he thought of the humiliating time Fuse was having. "Her battlepad is here if you want to make him bigger." The villain suggested.

"I don't wanna inflate his ego any more, but I want this fight to last a little longer. Fine." He sighed picking up the pad.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

The words appeared above the remains of Strikedart and the deep booming voice once again made it clear. "Extra Life!"

"Here we go again." Demetri commented.

The ground quaked as Strikedart respawned in a shimmer of golden coins. "I said I'd make it big one day, and look at me now!" He boasted as he embraced his giant form.

Each of the five rangers took out their miniaturised animal cubes which were already in their animal forms. "Primal mounts awaken!" A synthesised voice called as each of the miniature zords gained a pixelated and coloured aura before floating into the sky and transforming to their regular size.

The five rangers leapt into their individual zords as they sped along.

"Primal Eagle, flying high!" Demetri called, spinning his control cube around.

"Primal Shark, jaws sharp!" Nel confirmed before spinning her control cube around.

"Primal Lion, roaring on!" Darren exclaimed, also spinning his control cube.

"Primal Elephant, ready to stomp!" Kyle said, following suit and spinning his control cube around.

"Primal Tiger, running fast!" Val finished, spinning her control cube around like the others had.

"Primal mounts ready!" They all called as the zords charged forward in unison.

"YAAAARGH! This time I'll get you!" Strikedart exclaimed, creating a dark cloud and sending a barrage of spears down on the zords.

"Time for some defence!" Demetri said as he switched his zord into cube form as the spears hit, causing them to ricochet off of the zord.

"Good thinking." Kyle agreed, transforming the elephant zord into a cube and performing a spinning technique with it to disperse the spears.

"You guys are good, but I'm the best!" Strikedart boasted as he sent down another barrage of spears.

"How about a bit of offence?" Val told the others as the claws on the tiger zord threw out boomerangs to counter the spears.

"Demetri, we need to get rid of that cloud." Kyle told the red ranger.

"On it. Nel, Darren, keep him occupied." Darren confiremd.

Nel and Darren nodded and headed for Strikedart while the eagle zord flew up and used its speed to cut through the dark cloud and disperse it quickly. The shark and lion zords bit onto Strikedart and caused the villain to struggle as they held on.

"I think it's time we formed up." Kyle suggested.

"Let's do it!" Demetri confirmed.

"This is gonna be great, my first time in a megazord!" Val enthused.

The red, green and white rangers pulled out their primers and opened them up. Outside the cockpits, the fiery square rings rendered and the three zords jumped through the hoops. "1! 4! 5! Protector Mech, initialised!"

The three zords became cubes and landed atop each other. "4! 5! 1! Primal Speedster, Engage!" The pixelated spike began falling from the sky, fully rendering before slotting into the cubes, turning to reveal the face of the megazord and pulling out of the megazord. The Primal Speedster was ready to make its debut.

"An alternate form." Kyle observed.

"This is pretty cool!" Val enthused as she also saw the other two rangers in the now enlarged cockpit with her.

"You might be more of a match for me now, but I still have my precious spear!" Strikedart yelled, spinning his weapon around.

The Speedster glided towards Stikedart, taking his feet out from under him with a sweeping kick, knocking the Racer to the ground before the megazord turned after going past him.

"Come on! Gimme a break, I'm only trying to decimate your world!" Strikedart complained, getting up with the aid of his spear.

"How about this!" Val exclaimed as the Primal Speedster came towards Strikart and gave a swift knee to the monster's stomach with the tiger part of the megazord.

As Strikedart tried to block the kicks of the megazord, his spear was knocked away on collision with the tiger claw.

Within the cockpit, the three rangers pulled out their primers and switched it to complete the image of the animals.

"Let's wrap this up!" Demetri called as they slotted their primers into their control cube.

"Eight bit kick!" They called as the Primal Speedster leapt into the air and hit Strikedart with the powerful finisher before landing behind the monster.

Strikedart began to pixelate and fade away. "THIS CAN'T BE THE END!" He screamed as he faded.

"Game Over!" All five called as yet another racer was defeated.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

Back within the Racers command ship, only Hexagon and Pivillinous were present.

"I think I still have a headache from that airhead." Hexagon complained.

Pivillinous took a sip from his chalice. "That was fun, but seeing as you failed to destroy these weaklings, you'll have to wait your turn for a shot at the loot prize." Hexagon frowned at the words.

As he did, Meizong and Fuse walked in, to Hexagon's delight, the latter was covered in a needless amount of shopping bags. Hexagon burst out in laughter at seeing his rival in such a state.

"Yeah, very funny, at least I'm not stupid enough to send out the most annoying and insufferable team member I can find and end up getting a headache from the whole ordeal." Fuse smarted off.

Hexagon marched over and grabbed Fuse by the neck. "You better watch it you bucket of bolts!" He growled.

Meizong stepped in. "Now now Hexagon, Fusey here is gonna help me try on my new outfits, otherwise he's scrap metal. Isn't that right?" She asked, her tone turning dark for only the words 'scrap metal.'

Fuse gulped and nodded. Hexagon let go and once again burst out into laughter. "Have fun you oversized calculator!" Hexagon yelled as Meizong dragged Fuse along with her.

Fuse gave a sigh. 'I'm gonna need a memory wipe after this.'

 **[Primal Protectors]**

At the Arcade, Kyle was now getting along with the others as they were sharing things about themselves with each other. That's when Flynn came up to them with a toolbox full of cleaning supplies, a mop and a bucket of water.

"Guys, the bathroom needs cleaning. It's filthy in there and I'm too busy grinding levels on this new game to do it, so which one of you will it be?" Flynn told them as he put down the cleaning supplies.

Kyle looked to the sides of him to see that the other four rangers had miraculously vanished leaving him to be the unfortunate victim of cleaning the bathroom. He gave a gulp in fear of what he would be cleaning. "I'll get you all for this!" He exclaimed as the other rangers began laughing uncontrollably as they headed out of the Arcade as quickly as they could.

 **|Primal Protectors|**

 **And that is chapter 3. Kyle joined the team officially after seeing that even if most of the team isn't serious most of the time, when it really matters, they are there to defend others and he overcame his doubts. We got some rivalry between the commanders and poor Kyle now has to clean the bathroom, how unfortunate. Still, he has it better than Fuse.**

 **Now, I've been on a long break and I feel as if I have to apologize. I've been really unmotivated to write and have been putting it off for a bit. But when I was writing this chapter I got back into enjoying doing it and new chapters of different stories will be up in the future.**

 **I must say that just writing this, I feel like it's been my best work so far and I feel really satisfied with how it came out, and that made it all the better when I finished it up. So till then next time and here's the Synopsis of the next chapter which will come out at the end of april/beginning of may depending on my workload.**

 **Next Chapter: Player - Optimist**

 **Synopsis: The second character focus will be on Valerie. As the rangers go back to their temporary living spaces, Val goes to her apartment within the city and we get a look into her family life, and an unfortunate turn of events. When the rangers get involved, things only get worse, can they turn this situation around and defeat a former friend of Pike? Find out next time on Power Rangers: Primal Protectors.**


	4. Chapter 4: Player - Optimist

**Primal Protectors**

 **Chapter 4: Player - Optimist**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Power Rangers or the source material for this fic, Doubutsu Sentai Zyouhger or any other things referenced such as certain games.**

 **The characters appearing were made by: AyatoHattori, Dash master 48, KidF1ash, bobmanv2.0, Thewhatzupwriter26 and Me. Gadget The Critic is the man behind the monsters.**

Within the Racer command ship, Pivillinous sat, sipping from his chalice. At the left side of the room was Fuse, while at the opposite side stood Hexagon. In front of Pivillinous was a new addition to the Racer's ranks.

The alien looked like someone in green and gold clothing, wearing an oversized pink and white tiki head with green and yellow checkered eyes with crosshairs in the middle. To top it all off, the monster was lumbering a large pink crossbow around.

"Good to see you again Beeven. I was disappointed that you didn't come join my team at first, but news of Pike's defeat spread fast and you came running along like you always do." Pivillinous said to the alien known as Beeven.

Beeven spoke up in a strangely accurate Australian accent for an alien. "Aye mate, Heard there's some new players that took my pal out. Thought I'd see what the whole thing's about."

"Good to here. Now go get some rest. We've got some contracts to fill out before you can start playing. In the meantime I trust you two can keep the game going." Pivillinous told the two team leaders.

Fuse and Hexagon quickly left, once out of sight of their leader, Hexagon lifted Fuse by the scruff of the neck. "Listen tin can. I don't like you. But this guy's an idiot. He's supposed to be a replacement for Pike, but he said he'd do it for nothing. I'd be fine with that if it wasn't for us getting less prize money and his share going to the boss."

Fuse nodded. "I see. So a pile of blocks like you is worried about money. I thought honour was your first priority."

"I get paid peanuts as it is. Even I have to make a living some how. And I won't go back to… Modelling." Hexagon shuddered at the thought.

"Now there's an image I won't get out of my head any time soon. But I understand what you mean. Thankfully if we give a good enough lie to Beeven, he'll go down to earth and cause some destruction. But I'm sure that power rangers nuisance can take care of him. I mean look what they did to old Pike. That's why old players should retire." Fuse suggested as the two villains plotted.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

It was now the weekend in LA and the rangers had gone back to their temporary living spaces until Flynn had a more permanent solution for getting the rangers to stay. Meanwhile, Valerie Dawson had returned to her apartment in the city, where she lived with her twin sister.

In her bedroom, her alarm sounded off to signal the start of the day. With a groan, she reluctantly rose up from the covers, her hair was bedraggled as she slowly opened her tired eyes.

"What time is it?" She groaned, looking at the alarm clock on her bedside table. The time read 10:30 am. "Still too early." Val complained, dropping back into her bed with a tired yawn.

Unfortunately for the white ranger, her sister wouldn't let her sleep in. "Val, I made breakfast!" Gabrielle called. Val rose up and groaned again as she got out of bed to get ready for the day ahead.

After getting changed, Val was now eating pancakes at the table with her sister. She was now wearing a more casual outfit compared to the one she was wearing almost a week ago. It consisted of blue jeans, a white top underneath her grey hoodie and she wore a pair of white shoes.

"Hey, Val, I've heard you've found yourself some new friends recently. Got a good look at a couple. They looked pretty cute." Gabrielle laughed.

"You always have to be the weird one don't you?" Val replied, Gabrielle proceeded to tap her in the shoulder playfully.

"It's fun teasing you." She smirked. "So anyway, I was thinking going shopping today. Wanna tag along?" Gabrielle asked. Val took a few moments to think about the offer.

"Sure, as long as I get to go in the game shops if you're fine with that." Val answered. Then an almost devious smile crept across Gabrielle's face.

"As long as I get to meet these new friends of yours," Val finally understood what she was hinting at with that facial expression.

The white ranger let out a laugh. "Oh god you're promiscuous. Fine, just don't try anything."

"Is it okay if I think about trying anything?" Gabrielle asked in a more sarcastic manner, although Val couldn't tell whether or not she was being sarcastic. Even though this was the case, she let out a laugh at that statement.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

The Los Angeles shopping district was a fine attraction with many stores unique to the shopping district. It was said that the entertainment stores were the best in the country. Unfortunately for Val, she was only half way through the shopping trip and was currently in one of the many clothing stores waiting for her sister to try on every dress in the pile she had picked out.

Then, among the racks and shelves of clothing, she spotted a familiar face, looking kinda lost. What made matters more interesting was what they were doing. Demetri Black was standing in the centre of the woman's clothing section, with a piece of paper in his left hand. As he examined the many different outfits, he tried to keep his business as discrete as possible, to avoid any incidents. Unfortunately for him, Val had other plans.

She walked up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder, causing him to freeze in place. "Hey Demetri, fancy seeing you here." Val gave a laugh after finishing her sentence.

The red ranger turned around slowly after realising who it was. "H-Hey… Val…" He said in a nervous manner.

She looked at him with a smug face. "So, what are you doing here exactly?"

Demetri stuttered again, trying to think of something. "I-I um… This isn't the game store is it?"

Val laughed at his terrible lie and snatched the piece of paper from his hand. "Hmm… A designer dress. And wow is that not cheap."She said then a sly smirk came across her face. "So what do you want this for? Doing a bit of crossdressing?" She asked, obviously being sarcastic, but in an effort to embarrass her friend.

Demetri's face became red at the comment. "No! No! It's not like that. My cousin came with me and my mom here to visit LA. Because she and my mom are off dealing with something else, I have to go buy a stupid dress for her." He grimaced.

Val laughed at the predicament he was in. Then someone behind her cleared their throat. The two rangers turned to see Gabrielle stood looking at the two.

"So Val, is that one of the friends you were talking about?" She asked, causing the white ranger to sigh as she knew where this was going.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

Near the outskirts of a city, on a hill overlooking a freeway, Beeven stood clutching his bright pink crossbow. "The hunt's gonna be fine today, mate." Beeven spoke in his stereotypical Australian accent. "I'm gonna enjoy myself here."

Beeven lifted his crossbow with one hand and aimed it at the passing traffic on the freeway. Firing rapidly, bright green bolts struck vehicles and tarmac alike, causing trucks to explode and cars to flip over.

"Let's get in there!" Beeven enthused, jumping into the air and landing on the freeway where the area was already in anarchy.

He blasted the vehicles a few more times, toppling larger vehicles such as vans and motorhomes. Citizens fled in terror at the destruction. The Racer jumped from place to place like a kangaroo, blasting everything in his path with his crossbow.

Finally he landed back atop the hill from where he began his attack. "That was fun. We'll have to do that again some time, mates." He gloated, pumping the air with his fist which also held his crossbow. When he turned, he saw three individuals stood opposite him.

Darren, Penelope and Kyle stood side by side. Their morphers in hand.

"So, who ordered the joker with extra pancake face?" Kyle asked in a mocking manner.

"Let's just beat this creep up already!" Nel enthused.

"Shouldn't we wait for the others?" Darren asked, skeptical of their abilities to take the Racer on without their full team. Nel and Kyle shook their heads.

Ther three flipped open their Rubik Primers and pressed their individual buttons and the central red one.

"Two, Shark!" "Three, Lion!" "Four, Elephant!" "Beasts ready!" The morpher called as they closed it up, ready to morph.

"Primordial Powers, Awaken!" They called, twisting the top to form the beast image before morphing into their ranger forms.

"So you lot are the power rangers that beat my bud. Well, you'll have a job on with me!"

Beeven jumped up and down as Darren attempted to take the Racer down. Despite his efforts, Beeven side stepped his attack. Kyle threw his fist downhill, only for it to be met by Beeven's crossbow. Beeven once again turned to dodge, this time, sending the blue ranger past him while knocking the green ranger back. In that short space of time, Darren recovered and tried to grab ahold of Beeven's arm, only to be slung around.

"This guy's tougher than the last two we fought, that's for sure." Nel told them as Kyle once again slung his arm downhill to connect with the crossbow before his arm was once again thrown off.

"He's fast too,I don't think we can outpace him here." Kyle observed as he tried to swing at Beeven's head.

Darren and Nel came in from either side and tried to hold onto the alien's arms. Yet using his overwhelming strength, they tumbled to the floor. Darren got back up as Kyle tried to land another punch on him. From the side, Nel had recovered and was about to attack Beeven, but the Racer caught wind of her plan and used the oversized crossbow to block her. He then took the crossbow around to strike Darren in the gut with it. With a swift jump, Beeven landed a few feet away from the rangers. He lifted his crossbow and aimed it at the three rangers.

"I had a good time playing this game, but vengeance must be served. Say hi to Pike for me!" Beeven called to them as the rangers reared up to endure the attack.

The ranger fired at the rangers, sending three laser arrows on impact with them. While the rangers endured the first wave, Beeven send another set straight at them, blasting them head on. On the third and final blast of arrows, the three of them collapsed backwards as the laser arrows struck them.

Kyle clutched his arm. "I miscalculated. He isn't just fast, he's too fast." The green ranger groaned.

Beeven stood there in disbelief. "You haven't blown up yet? Maybe my crossbow is faulty. Time to go fix it. Bye for now power rangers!" He finished, jumping into the air.

"Get back here coward!" Darren exclaimed, running after the fleeing racer. He leapt over a ledge, but the distance was too far and began tumbling down a hill. When he reached a levelled area, his head was on the floor with his legs bent over the rest of his body. With a burst of yellow energy, he demorphed and laid himself out on the grassy plain.

Val and Kyle, now also demorphed, headed over to their teammate. "Hey, Darren, you okay?" Kyle asked, concerned about his wellbeing.

"I wasn't ready. Hey, one of you mind helping me up here?" Darren asked holding his hand up towards the other two rangers.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

Pivillinous sat upon his throne, at the corner of the room, where the bar was, Meizong was mixing drinks. In front of the viewing screen, Hexagon stood, watching replay footage of Beeven's fight with the rangers. Fuse walked on in to see what was happening.

Then Pivillinous spoke up. "I see that Beeven was a little eager to go out and fight." The villain gave a sigh. Either way it's a win win for us. He is kinda a loose cannon after all. I trust you had something to do with this Fuse?"

Fuse tried his best to look shocked. "Why, sir, I would never do something like that!" The robotic team leader gasped. "If anyone its that block head over there." Fuse finished, putting the blame on Hexagon.

Hexagon slammed his cubic fists together. "Unless you want to be target practice for the rangers next. I suggest you keep your mouth shut, kettle."

Meizong walked over and gave Pivillinous a drink. "I love to see you two idiots bicker as much as the next, but at this rate neither of you are gonna get my prize." The leader told them, causing the two to freeze in mention of such a thing.

Meizong walked over and offered a drink to Fuse. "Just take this and stop whining you box of spark plugs." She sighed.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

After introductions were made and a long shopping trip, taking Demetri along with them. The twin sisters were ready to head home. Demetri was carrying a mound of bags while the two twins were freehanded. Except for Val who was staring intently at a retro game in her hands.

"I can't wait to play you." She told the videogame, not taking her eyes off it.

Just as the three of them reached a crossing, Demetri realised something. He stood next to the white ranger and whispered to her to avoid attracting attention. "Hey, Val. You got your morpher. I left mine at home. What if the others needed us and I didn't know." He grimaced.

Val took her eyes off of the game and looked at her. After a brief search through her bag, she revealed no results. It was at this point, the signal turned to green for people to cross over.

The two rangers were still stood at the edge of the road. "Crap… I forgot it." She told Demetri, neither of them realised that the signal had changed yet.

"We have to got to the arcade and see if anything happened." Demetri told her. Val gave a nod.

As the light turned to red and before Gabrielle reached the other side, she turned to see the two rangers talking. She began walking over and was about to call out to them when from the side a car ran straight into her, sending the young woman to the ground.

A commotion began and it caught the attention of the two rangers. When they turned to see what was going on, they could see a car that had skidded to a halt, with Gabrielle lying unconscious on the ground. Val's eyes widened as she saw her sister on the ground. She hurried over and knelt beside her, trying to hold back tears that began to well in her eyes.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

Back at the Arcade, the three beaten rangers sat about trying to think of a counterattack for fighting Beeven. It had been a few hours since the accident, Gabrielle was stable now, but she was still under. Demetri had left Val to look after her sister while he went back to the Arcade. A weary eyed Demetri entered, looking stressed out from the whole thing.

'I still feel like it's my fault…' he thought to himself as he headed over to the three other rangers.

"You look terrible." Darren said to the red ranger as they greeted him.

"We could've used you a bit ago. While you and Val were gone, we were beat by a cocky Racer. Any explanation for the whole thing?" Kyle asked, mildly irritated.

"I ran into Val and her sister this afternoon. After some time, we got to a crosswalk. Because I got distracted, her sister got hit by a car. She's on medication and recovering. But if it hadn't been for me…" Demetri trailed off.

The others looked at him with an understanding expression. Nel spoke up. "Go back, keep Val company till her sister wakes up. We'll handle that alien."

Before Demetri could decline, Kyle told him something. "If you feel guilty, you're better off making up for it. It'll compromise you in the battle otherwise." While the words came from the tactical side of Kyle's mind, there was truth in it. The guilt would eat away at him if he didn't try to make amends, even if it wasn't directly his fault.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

A short time later, Demetri found himself in the recovery ward of the hospital, he was directed to a small area lined with hospital beds, some occupied, others not. At the very end, he saw Val sat down next to a bed by the window. He hurried over to where she was and pulled a chair up.

"You're back early. Something happen?" She asked, seeming calm compared to when the accident first happened.

"The others told me to come, try to rid myself of my feelings of guilt." He told her as he gave a sigh.

"Don't feel bad about it. It's not your fault." She told him, trying to keep optimistic.

As they quietly argued over the blame, Slowly, Gabrielle opened her eyes. And looked over at the two. After a few moments, they came completely into focus.

"Hey." She said quietly, only just loud enough for them to hear.

"You're okay!" Val exclaimed, wrapping her arms around her sister. After a few moments, she let go.

"Listen. I have something, it's in the bedside table. I saw it in that oriental shop. The person running it said it would fit you so I bought it. Just thought I'd have a better time to give it to you…" She trailed off as VAl opened the drawer and took out the object.

It was a cube, primarily dark grey with an orange core and many strands of the outer section being missing, giving it a resemblance to one of the cores of the ranger's primers.

"Hey doesn't that look like?" Demetri asked, Val nodded it and handed it to him.

"Take it to Flynn and have a look at it." She told him. Demetri gave a quick nod before heading out of the area with it.

Val turned back to her sister. "Thanks sis. Demetri's just taking it to a safe place for me. Is there anything I can give you in return?" Val asked, immediately regretting her choice of words as she saw the smug look on her sister's face.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

As Demetri waited at the bus stop, he heard his name being called. He looked around to see that Val was walking up.

"Did something happen?" Demetri asked as she stood beside him.

She shook her head. "I lost track of time. Visiting hours are over for now so I'll have to come back tomorrow. Thought I'd get a ride back with you, see how the others are doing." Val told him.

After a few minutes of waiting the bus arrived and the two got on. Sitting down, Demetri pulled out the orange and grey cube and began studying it, reading every little detail. Then he turned to Val.

"Hey Val. You seemed strange back there. Is something up? Did the accident scare you back there?" He asked, handing the cube back to her.

"I'm trying to keep positive, but I can't for everything. I know that she's okay now but I'm still a bit frustrated for what happened. I feel like it's my fault." She sighed.

Demetri was surprised as he hadn't seen her like this till now. Even if they'd only known each other for a brief time, it was interesting to see she wasn't always optimistic. "I get it. I've been blaming myself too. If I hadn't have thought about losing my morpher, things might've been different. But listen. You don't have to worry about something if it isn't your fault. I know we're blaming ourselves, but there's an idiot out there who can't drive that's to blame. So don't blame yourself for others mistakes. Just keep being optimistic, like you always do. I hate seeing you being depressed, even if you do put on a smile."

Val nodded to him and gave a smile. "With moral support like that, I might as well make the effort. Thanks newbie, you're a good friend." She said, slightly teasing him with his nickname.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

On top of an overpass, Beeven stood, gloating about his triumph over the rangers. Travelling towards the overpass was a bus among other vehicles. Beeven grinned.

"Time to start the hunt back up again." He enthused, aiming his crossbow at the bus. He fired, yet narrowly missed the bus and blasted a car behind the vehicle. "Crikey, looks like I'll need to tune my weapon more, wouldn't want to miss again. But I'll save it for later." He observed.

Within the bus, the passengers, along with the red and white rangers, felt the shock of the blast and looked back to see the destroyed car as Beeven descended on the road and looked towards the bus. Val and Demetri looked through the back window to see the Racer turning in the direction of the bus.

"Looks like trouble just found us." Val said to Demetri who nodded.

Beeven leapt up onto a car and leapt off, blowing it up with an explosive energy bolt as he did. Back on top of the overpass, the morphed yellow green and blue rangers ran forward as Beeven landed in front of them, each of the rangers carried their Pixelators in blaster mode.

They shot at Beeven, sending shots his way, but the Racer dodged and blocked them with his quick reflexes. "You rangers haven't learned since our last fight." Beeven's train of thought changed quickly. "Hey I should take up river dancing." He said to himself as he observed his arms and legs moving in such a form.

"Time's up, my getaway bus is !" Beeven called, jumping up and landing on the bus as it passed under and came out on the other side.

Demetri and Val could see from the back window that the three rangers were chasing the bus, becoming exhausted in the process. Atop the bus, Beeven shot out energy bolts that hit the feet of the rangers, staggering them long enough for them to lose ground and causing them to tumble in the process. Beeven gave a cocky wave to the three downed rangers.

Demetri climbed his way out of a side window on the bus. Morphing as he got out. When ready he leapt towards Beeven with his eagle chain blade. The alien had only a few moments to turn around and duck as the red ranger swung his blade at him.

Demetri went past Beeven and stumbled as he almost fell off the back of the bus, only just managing to regain his footing.

"I heard you were the one to take out Pike. Well I'll make sure to take you out." Beeven told the red ranger as his opponent turned to face him.

"Try as you might, I haven't lost a battle, and I don't intend on losing today." Demetri remarked as he locked his blade with Beeven's crossbow.

Demetri kicked Beeven in the side as the two kept up the attacks with their weapons, neither one landing a hit with them. As the two parted and locked again, Beeven used his superior strength to lift up the red ranger and flip him to the other side. Demetri stumbled as he tried to regain his balance on the moving vehicle, letting out some slashes with his blade as he did. Beeven easily blocked the attacks with his fast reflexes.

The Racer grabbed the red ranger by the arm as the fumbled about, as the bus ran over a felled log as it headed outside the city, the two lost their balance and Demetri rolled off the edge.

"Primal Power up, Unleash!" The red ranger cried out in a bid to save himself from hitting the ground.

He gained his wings and was flying above Beeven and trailing just behind the bus. The Racer was about to fire from his crossbow at Demetri when three shots from a Pixelator came out of the roof of the buss, just nearly missing Beeven, however it distracted him and bought Demetri enough time to fly up high and swoop down to knock Beeven off of the bus and onto the concrete.

"Time to make an emergency stop." Val said as she opened up the bus door with the emergency release and barreled out of the vehicle.

Demetri swooped down and the two were now in the woods. "You could've at least given me a warning, I'm not too sure of your ability with a gun. You could've hit me." He complained.

Val just laughed at him. "I'm not that bad a shot. Relax newbie. If I had hit you, it wouldn't have been that bad." She attempted to reassure him, her words which were obviously poorly chosen, didn't help.

"Wouldn't have been bad?" He repeated, about to go into a fit.

Just before that happened, the three other rangers arrived on scene to see the rangers okay.

"Good to see you two okay." Darren said as he looked the two over.

"Where'd that Racer go?" Kyle asked, still concerned about the current threat.

As if by plot developing cliche, Beeven came down the side of a slope and stood behind them. "Game over mate!" He called out, aiming his crossbow at the group.

The five of them turned and lined up. They all keyed in their codes and closed them up. "Primordial Powers, Awaken!" They called, twisting the Primer to complete the beast image. Overlaid with a stream of pixels in their colour and with a white burst of energy, the rangers were morphed and ready to fight.

"Lord of the skies! Primal Protector Red!" Demetri started.

"Predator of the deep! Primal Protector Blue!" Nel called out.

"King of the jungle! Primal Protector Yellow!" Darren roared.

"Behemoth of the forest! Primal Protector Green!" Kyle pumped his arm.

"Stalker of the blizzard! Primal Protector White!" Val finished.

"Virtual Players, Real Heroes! Power Rangers, Primal Protectors!" They all called.

"So you're all here, looks like the match is coming to a close." Beeven commented.

Demetri wiped his helmet from top to bottom.

"Tell your boss from us. He sucks at games!" Demetri declared.

"He'll not be happy. Quarters, get em!" He called, flipping a coin in the air and summoning a group of henchmen.

Val jumped on top of a small tree with her catlike reflexes. Grabbing onto a Quarter and using it to flip down onto the ground, where they surrounded her. Using her claws, she slashed at the minions knocking them to the ground.

Meanwhile, Kyle was using his strength to ram a Quarter into a tree before proceeding to beat it relentlessly with his fists. He then got up to deal the same punishment to the rest of the minions around him

Darren jumped up and touched his feet against a trunk and flipping over back onto the ground whilst dodging the attacks from the Quarters around him. He went to the ground and used his feet to grab a Quarter's head in a vice hold and take it to the ground.

Meanwhile Penelope was being held by a Quarter, she used her maneuverability to turn the tables and send the Quarter to the ground. She proceeded to grab the head of another one of the minions and twist it using the force used in her special ability which caused its whole body to spin and knock it to the floor.

Demetri was fighting off Quarters using his chain blade, skipping from place to place as he did so. With swift slashes, he dispatched the minions as the other rangers finished off their remaining opponents simultaneously.

They were caught off guard as Beeven leapt in and fired a volley of explosive bolts at the team, knocking them to the ground as they tried to fend him off. However his overclocked speed was too much for them to handle.

"Game over." Beeven laughed as he aimed and fired at the rangers. Demetri got up at the last second and managed to use his chain blade to deflect the blows and send them in different directions.

"How'd you pull that one off?" Kyle asked as the others got up.

Demetri turned to them. "FPS tactic. When you're low on health, you take a deep breath and the whole thing just seems to slow down, if only for a second. Allowing you to rack up a kill and survive." He told the other rangers.

Val looked at the red ranger. "Not too shabby newbie." She said, grinning under her helmet.

Beeven tried firing again and this time Demetri extended his chain blade. He took a deep breath in as multiple laser bolts were sent towards him. Whether it was skill or a fluke, Demetri stopped them all.

"Let's cut him down to size!" Demetri called to the others.

"Primordial Power ups, Awaken!" They called, donning their animalistic power ups.

Nel transformed into a razor shell of water, battering against the Racer. Darren let off a surge of lightning with his claws Which struck Beeven. Kyle stomped the ground with his feet, causing a quake and staggering their foe. Val let out a snowy air cutting clash from her claws that knocked Beeven to the ground.

Each ranger pulled out their Pixelator in blaster mode. "Time to put his lights out." Val enthused. Each of the rangers switched to blade mode on their Pixelator. "Group attack" Val called.

"Primal bonds, beast slash!" The rangers called, jumping into the air to become a multi coloured claw of energy that beared down on Beeven, causing him to surge with energy and explode as the rangers turned to look away from the explosion.

Victory was short lived as, along with the deep booming voice, the words "Extra life" appeared over the downed Racer. With an explosion of coins, Beeven grew to large proportions. "Round two, mates!" He called as he was rejuvenated.

The rangers quickly pulled out their cube themed animals and raised them to the sky where they grew to large proportion before the rangers jumped inside.

Beeven blasted two hills either side of the zords as they came towards him, causing a rockslide that trapped the tiger and elephant zords.

"Looks like we'll have to fight without them." Darren said as the three remaining rangers keyed in their zords to transform.

Once the zords had combined and the primal warrior was ready, the rangers wasted no time and rushed into the fight with Beeven. The warrior slashed at the Racer, yet their foe managed to block it with ease. In close proximity, Beeven showed off a formerly unused move where he shot purple lasers from his eyes.

"Woah, where's that come from?" Nel asked as their megazord stumbled backwards.

"I've got no clue." Demetri replied as they tried to hold on.

The megazord hit back against a hillside as Beeven let out another volley of explosive bolts. The primal warrior was struggling to keep up its fight. Another rockslide occurred and buried the legs of the megazord. No matter how hard they struggled, they were stuck. Just in time, the other two zords burst out and collided into Beeven, knocking him back.

"Hey Demetri, let's form up the Speedster megazord and show him what we're made of!" Kyle called. Demetri nodded and disconnected from the current configuration.

As the three zords connected, the three rangers called out. "Primal Speedster, player ready!"

This time when Beeven blasted at the megazord, it used its speed to take the advantage and dodged any incoming attack.

"You're not the only one's who can max their speed stat out!" Val called out to Beeven.

"It's not good though, we keep this up and this place will be ash by the time we're done." Kyle told the others.

Val looked down. "I wish we had more fire power. Maybe then we'd be able to take him out." Val pulled out the grey and orange cube as she noticed it beginning to resonate with bright orange energy. "Huh? What's happening?"She asked as it began to render and with a burst of white energy became an yellow animal cube.

"I'm not even gonna question the logic in this." Kyle remarked as he looked over.

"As long as it's a weapon we can use. I don't care if it's a unicorn that fires rainbows." Demetri said. It glew again and flew out of Val's hand and out of the cockpit, enlarging to become a cube almost as big as their usual animal cubes.

The cube had a large exclamation point on the front and rolled onto the ground and flipped open, morphing into a cubic giraffe.

"It's a giraffe!?" The three rangers called out, questioning who's idea it was. Quickly the giraffe zord rammed into Beeven and jabbed him in one of the eyes.

With an animal call, the giraffe zord began to transform once again. This time becoming what closely resembled a bazooka. It then slotted into the Primal Speedster's hand.

"I seriously think there's a higher power trying to mess with us. A giraffe bazooka, who thought of that?" Kyle asked clearly not impressed with the aesthetics of their new weapons.

"Who cares? It's a giraffe bazooka. A giraffezooka!" Val said, dubbing the new weapon thusly.

"Giraffezooka, unload!" The three called, placing their Rubik Primers into their control cubes.

A relentless hail of bullets fired from the nozzle, each hitting Beeven. "God blimey when will this thing stop!?" He squealed as he surged with energy and once again exploded and became a mass of pixels as the megazord turned away.

"Game Over!" The five rangers cheered as they defeated their biggest challenge to date, and received a new weapon. All in a day's work.

 **|Primal Protectors|**

 **And that is it for the fourth chapter of Primal Protectors. I always come out of this and see that it's a lot bigger than expected. Mainly due to translating the fight scenes to text from the sentai footage, but the plot has to be there too right. But at least I always feel accomplished after a chapter of Primal Protectors.**

 **I decided to make Val's sister be a bit promiscuous and after the male rangers so after she's recovered expect to see her putting the guys in awkward situations. Plus, this episode took a few jabs at me and the source material, so that was fun to do.**

 **College is going well and I started my last assignment for the year, that will be finished off for next week and I'll only really have to do the game engine stuff which is more or less finished anyway. So we're close to getting back to our 'usual broadcasting' if you will. So I'm looking forward to that.**

 **Next Chapter: Players - Fight**

 **Synopsis: More of a dual character focus, this focuses on Penelope and Darren after they are captured by a fighting themed monster and forced to compete in his competition. They must work with each other to get out of there, but what will happen when they have to fight each other? Can their friends save them before one or both of them are eliminated? Find out next time on Power Rangers: Primal Protectors**


	5. Chapter 5: Players - Fight

**Primal Protectors**

 **Chapter 5: Players - Fight**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Power Rangers or the source material for this fic, Doubutsu Sentai Zyouhger or any other things referenced such as certain games.**

 **The characters appearing were made by: AyatoHattori, Dash master 48, KidF1ash, bobmanv2.0, Thewhatzupwriter26 and Me. Gadget The Critic is the man behind the monsters.**

As usual, the streets of Los Angeles at night were calm and relaxed, unless it was a nightclub. Yet as street performers in the entertainment areas of the city were playing for their earnings and as tourists enjoyed the sights of the city at night.

Two young adults, one was a male playing an acoustic guitar, the other female, holding a microphone and singing, were performing on the street as passersby dropped cash into a guitar case. Then out of the blue, a net was slung over the two and electrocuted them, sending them to the ground.

In another nearby spot, by a bridge, a small group were about to take a selfie when another net was slung over them too, resulting in the same effect. The culprit was a menacing 7ft tall robotic Viking warrior.

"Av caught me some wee ones!" He exclaimed in triumph as he dragged the smaller group over to some more captives. "Welcome to ye all. You've all been chosen by Team Fuse for the once in a lifetime 'Barrel Bonanza Battle Royale!' So let's get the barrel rolling!" The Team Fuse player announced in a terribly done, imitated Scottish accent.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

Pivillinous was sat drinking from his glass, observing the latest player in action. Hexagon was nowhere to be seen and neither was Meizong. Fuse however was explaining how great he was yet again and how he managed to recruit such a warrior.

"So there I was, looking for recruits, scouring space for them when we were boarded by an Uro spacecraft. The thing is the Uro were wiped out. It turned out that robotic Vikings was made by those slugs with a god complex. Called themselves the Iron axe, so using my extreme smarts I got him on our side. Then when I mentioned such an esteemed warrior to you, he was sent out right away and here we are. I'm sure that Starfist will not let you down" Fuse explained to his boss.

"Fuse. I love how you manage to talk about yourself in every single discussion we have. You're kind of a novelty if nothing else. Let's just hope his love for barrels doesn't get in the way. You know how many we bought for him right." Pivillinous grimaced.

"Yes sir, if he fails. I'll pay for it…" He informed to the villain.

"Whatever that punishment is, know it will be at least as bad as going shopping with Meizong." Pivillinous responded, getting the mechanical team leader to gulp before taking a sip from his glass.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

The five rangers were gathered around the arcade. Nel and Darren were playing on the air hockey table as the other three watched them play, Kyle keeping score. Nel wasn't letting up, but Darren seemed to be letting his guard down a little bit.

"So if I win this next one, you let me help out with any chores you have, help lighten the load." Darren told Nel as he hit the puck her way.

Penelope smirked deviously in response. "Don't go underestimating me here. But If I win, you have to hold Kyle down and make him smell your socks!" She declared slamming the puck through his defence in an instant and straight into the slot.

"Wait? What? Why me? Oh god, I swear this' happened somewhere before…" Kyle groaned as the others laughed.

"And that's why you don't underestimate me." Nel said confidently.

Demetri stood by Darren and whispered to him. "You let her win didn't you?"

"As a knight, it's my duty to protect the honor of maidens. As a gentleman, it's my duty to lose honorably if it means putting a smile on one's face." He replied back.

"Okay then. You know, you didn't have to cut her any slack. She shouldn't be underestimated, one day you might have to fight her for real and not hold back." Demetri finished before heading off.

As Darren was left to think about that, Flynn walked in. "Good news for you all. Due to some mysterious, expert, genius, totally not me, hacker. Darren, Demetri and Kyle, you're all now transferred to the same school Nel goes to, effective immediately, of course nobody cares about that though. It just means you've all got residence in LA now and everything's sorted. Oh, Val, about your workplace. I thought I could get their services you know. It'd be good for me." He said to them all before Val ran over and covered his mouth with her hands.

"Not a word about where I work." She whispers to him in a slightly threatening voice.

"Okay, okay!" Flynn told her with his hands in the air in surrender. As he did the alarm went off. And the rangers rushed out to deal with the latest threat from the Racers. Flynn sighed in relief. "Seriously, I don't know what's so embarrassing about where she works."

 **[Primal Protectors]**

The arena for the 'Barrel Bonanza Battle Royale' was in an open area that had a few office buildings nearby with smaller buildings closer. There were steps in a semi-circle around the arena, which was marked out by several triangular based pyramids which were metallic grey with blue images in the sides, wrapped around them was yellow netting, which would electrocute any would be escapee.

Quarters guarded the other prisoners while Starfist threw the man and woman duet from the previous night into the arena. "Now, you wee en's ar gonna fight between yer sen's till one of ye wins. One that does gets free. The other, well I've got a barrel with your name on it." He informed them, putting on the accent terribly still.

"We're not doing anything you say you monster!" The young man defied, getting up and running towards the edge of the arena. "Come on Maya!" He said right before getting zapped with electricity and falling to the ground.

"Daniel! Are you okay?" The young woman known as Maya asked as she helps him up.

"If neither of you fight I'll take you both. Now, Barrel up!" Starfist called, breaking character for a second.

"Maya, you have to win, and get out of here. Beat me up. For your own sake!" Daniel told her.

"Okay." She said without a second thought.

"Wait what!?" He asked, surprised at how okay she was with it before she sent a right hook straight to his face, causing him an extreme amount of pain.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

Back inside the Racer's ship, all of the villains were now viewing the fight. Fuse walked with a feeling of superiority as Pivillinous watched the young woman beat her friend up without a care.

"So how are you enjoying his battle royale, Hexagon?" Fuse asked with a chuckle as he approached the other team leader.

"Barrels Barrels Barrels! All day long! All that guy talks about his barrels! It's been giving me a headache for the last few nights. I'm just glad you've been the one to take him on your team. You might be a bucket with arms and legs, but at least you're not like him, otherwise I would have to finish you." Hexagon complained as he banged his head against the wall.

"Oh yeah, well you. You're no good at maths so take that." Fuse responded, trying to be clever.

"Very original." Meizong mocked with a clap of the same nature. "Now let's get back to the show. I think I like this woman hitting her friend called, Dan was it? If this happens somewhere all the time, It'd be great!" She sadistically enthused.

"I agree, good wine, good can't get better than that." Pivillinous said, sloshing his drink about before taking a sip from his glass.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

As Darren, Val and Nel arrived on scene, being slightly more in shape than the red and green rangers and making the decision to let them catch up, they saw the young man and woman fighting while surrounded by the Racers.

"This doesn't look too good." Nel commented as the man was smacked into the face and sent to the floor.

"Nice one wee lass!" Starfist enthused. "Now get going, as for you laddie." He paused as a Quarter took the young woman away. Starfist then pulled out his axe and pointed it at the defeated young man. A bright yellow laser was shot out and hit him, in his place now was a barrel. "Barrel time. Hey Quarters, let's all do the barrel dance!" Starfist ordered, but was that was stopped by the shouting of three individuals.

"Hey, Beardy! You can't go doing that to people just because you're big mean and have a case of haggis breath!" Val called out, greatly insulting Starfist. "Ready guys?" She asked to the other two who nodded.

The three flipped open their rubik primers and keyed in. "Two, Shark!" "Three, Lion!" "Five, Elephant!" "Beasts Ready!" The morphers called.

"Primordial Powers, Awaken!" The three called, twisting the top to complete the symbol of the beasts before it lit up. The three of them now stood morphed after another flashy light show and ready to deal with the situation, charging down the steps with haste.

"Just barrel them over already you idiot quarters!" Starfist roared, pointing his axe at the three rangers.

As the Quarters clashed with the rangers, Nel pulled one of the minion's arms up and spun under it before knocking it down to the ground. Darren rolled out of the way of a sweeping attack and got back up to tap one of the Quarters to the side before running further forward to deal with other enemies. Val rolled behind one of the minions before standing up as Darren charged forward and wrestled with Starfist.

Not long after the battle had started, Val had rendered her Pixelator and switched it to sword mode. She swiftly cut the net that was keeping the other people captive and flung it off of them, followed by the many thanks given for her rescuing them before they fled.

"Blasted, after I went to all that trouble to capture 'em. Al ave that wee ranger in white then!" Starfist declared as he flung a net at Valerie who turned and froze in surprise.

"Val!" Nel and Darren called simultaneously, standing in front of the frozen ranger just before she was about to be hit. Unfortunately, the two rangers got in the way of each other and their prospects of destroying that net had become nil while their capture was certain.

The net fell on top of the two and began electrocuting them and causing them to demorph. As Val tried to help them, a Quarter got in the way causing her to stagger back and defend herself.

"Two in one, we're gonna have a barrel of a good time!" Starfist laughed as the two were teleported off to an unknown location via the coin stack resembling teleporter along with the villain.

Val managed to take down the Quarter but was now missing two teammates. "Why not?" She asked as the tip of her blade hit the side of the silver barrel that was once a man. Within seconds it reverted to the young man who gasped for air with his newfound freedom.

"I'm not a barrel anymore!" He exclaimed with relief.

"Huh, you aren't are you?" She said pulling him to his feet. "You okay?" She asked to which he nodded.

"Yeah. I think I'm officially done with women though. She beat the crap out of me!" He whined.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

Back on the racer's command ship, the villains were all impressed, aside for Hexagon who had a banging headache again.

Meizong clasped her fingers together, pleased with how Starfist was doing. "My, my. Two of those rangers captured already, he really is useful isn't he."

"It was a good show, maybe you won't be scrubbing deck nineteen's toilets after all Fuse. But you know what I want now we have them." Pivillinous said, impressed.

"I'll inform my player right away sir, you won't be disappointment." Fuse said smugly.

"Just don't put him on speaker, otherwise I'll rip that octopus head of yours off and use it as a trash bin!" Hexagon threatened while his headache went on.

"Oh just shut up and drink this you mopey idiot." Meizong barked, handing him a glass with a potent looking drink in it.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

Demetri and Kyle arrived shortly after Nel and Darren were taken. The three of them spread out across the city looking for them, however not even Demetri using his flight capability could spot the two captive rangers. After a long time searching, the three of them regrouped at the entrance of the arcade. All of them sharing a disappointed look and knowing that none of them had found a clue as to the whereabouts of the missing rangers.

"There's gotta be something we can do." Kyle grimaced as he tried to think about what to try.

As he did so, Demetri spotted a dog and its owner walking by as the dog sniffed the pavement. "That's it! Either of you have a dog?" He asked, the two others shared blank looks for a second.

"I do." Kyle said hesitantly.

"All we do is let it smell that sock Darren had ready for you earlier." Demetri explained.

"Hey I'm not letting charlie sniff that putrid thing!" Kyle shouted, almost offended by the thought.

"Put it this way, would you rather smell it?" Val interjected, which was followed by Kyle grumbling but ultimately agreeing to it.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

A cluster of lights in the ceiling flicked on, illuminating the area to reveal it to be a boxing ring and venue. It consisted of a red and blue corner with white at the other two corners with raised seats at the back and foldable seats at either side. The electric netting was hung down from the support beams above and tied around the two white corners. Starfist was sat just behind ringside while a group of Quarters stood at ringside as guards just in case anything did go wrong.

Darren and Nel lay unconscious in the middle of the ring until a few minutes had passed and they got up slowly, looking around their surroundings and getting their bearings.

"What is this place?" Darren asked, his vision still a bit blurry.

"This laddie, is the wee big arena for the next 'Barrel Bonanza Battle Royale!' Blue versus Yellow, man versus woman. Who will win and who will get a nice comfy spot in this luxurious barrel?" Starfist announced to them, patting his hand on a silver barrel next to him.

"It's you!" Darren declared, pointing at the Racer, ready to run at Starfist.

"I wouldn't do that, unless you do what I want, you'll get a nasty shock tryna leave that ring, wee ranger." Starfist explained to the two.

"He wants us to fight each other Darren. I doubt he's playing games." Nel sighed, turning to the yellow ranger.

"I'm not gonna hurt a lady, you hear me!?" Darren yelled, reaching behind his back in an attempt to pull his morpher out. Bringing his hands around, they were empty.

"Looking for these?" Starfist gloated as he held up the two morphers trapped in a blue net bag.

"I guessed as much." Nel commented as Darren got even angrier.

"You give them back!" Darren yelled about to jump over the ring and after Starfist.

"Now now lad, do that and you're gonna get a nasty shock! Only way you're gonna get to me is if you fight each other, refuse and you'll be stuck here forever!" Starfist laughed,standing up to get a better view of the incoming fight. "Now, Barrel up!"

Darren grunted, turning to face Nel. "Fine." He said reluctantly.

"Then fight!" Starfist called as a Quarter hit the bell on the table with a hammer.

"Go easy on my face." Darren told Nel as he took a fighting stance.

"What's that supposed to mean? I'm gonna have to fight you properly, and you should do so too." She told him.

"I have to lose honorably in the face of danger, if it means that a woman such as you can go on. I'll try to be convincing, just make sure you find the others." He elaborated.

"Can the soppy romeo act already and hit me!" Penelope yelled at him, Darren merely shook his head. 'Looks like I'm gonna have to take matters into my own hands.' She thought to herself as she thought of a way to aggravate the yellow ranger. "Roleplayers suck!" She exclaimed, causing Darren to gasp.

"That's the one thing you don't say. And if it takes fighting you to prove I'm capable for my role so be it. This time I'm fighting as a warrior, so be prepared for pain!" He declared, a fiery look in his eye.

"Ugh, finally, a real challenge from you." Nel groaned before getting into her own fighting stance.

Darren swung for Nel but that was easily knocked to the side as the blue ranger got him in an arm lock. She took him to the floor, but Darren overpowered her and came swinging. Either he was still holding back or Nel had too fast reflexes as each one missed. Slipping out from under him, Nel kicked Darren in the back and sent him flat to the floor of the ring. The latter managing to get back up before more damage was done.

'I said the gloves were off but I'm still holding back. Either a desire to keep her from harm still keeping me at bay or as respect to her as a person. Either way its gotta stop, she isn't holding back and neither should I. I've gotta hit harder!' Darren thought to himself as he dodged a punch from Nel and dropped down to sweep her legs out from under her, knocking her to the ground momentarily.

"Last time you lost because you let that happen. I was going to win anyway. I might not look it, but when it comes to competitive games, whether it be air hockey or fighter tournaments, I never give up! I try my hardest to come out on top and I expect nothing less of my opponent, so stop letting me win already just because I'm a girl. Show me what you're really made of!" Nel called out to Derren, before sending a powerful punch his way.

The yellow ranger just managed to block it, then he gave a nod. "I see. The direness of this situation. If I have to put all that aside to stop him. So be it. Just know I'm sorry for what's to come."

 **[Primal Protectors]**

As the two rangers began to fight more viciously and more primally, in the command ship of the racers, the team leaders were beginning to enjoy the show.

"Took them a while to get some serious fighting in. Like the blue one said, he's too mopey. He should just get to fighting and not care who gets hurt!" Hexagon roared.

"I enjoy the fighting too, but the drama, the inner conflict, that's what makes the taste all the sweeter." Pivillinous chuckled as he too took a sip from his glass, afterwards standing up and exclaiming. "And the show I see right here, is the sweetest of things, Betrayal!"

"The loser gets trapped in a-" Fuse was cut off.

"If that word gets uttered one more time I'm going on a rampage. You hear, you overclocked spark bag?" Hexagon complained before Fuse continued.

"Yes, as I was saying. The loser, gets trapped in… THAT. While the winner is burdened knowing that it is all their fault, betraying their friend so that they can carry on." Fuse smirked with sadistic pleasure.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

As Darren Slung Nel across the room and she gasped for breath, Starfist laughed at how entertaining this all was. "Looks like things are off to a finish. After this I'm gonna reward myself by smashing some more barrels." The player told himself.

'I can't keep going. But I have to. One last hit, I can do this.' Nel thought to herself as she panted. "I'm finishing this now!" She yelled, running at Darren with her fist ready.

"Same here!" Darren responded, charging in, doing the same.

Yet at the last minute before contact, the two were stopped in their tracks just in time by the sound of a familiar voice.

"Darren, Nel, Stop!" It was the voice of the red ranger Demitri calling to them. Turning to the direction of the voice's origin, they saw the three other rangers at the top of the seats near an exit.

"Primordial Powers, Awaken!" The three of them called twisting their Primers to complete the symbol and transforming into the red, green and white rangers and clashing with the Quarters.

Val and Kyle pulled out their Pixelators in blaster mode, firing a few shots into the netting, setting it loose and freeing the yellow and blue rangers. Using the eagle chain blade, Demetri extended it to wrap around the bagged morphers and swipe them from Starfist.

"What? How did you even?" Starfist asked, shocked at the turn of events.

"Lets just say my dog went through a tough time tracing a scent." Kyle grimaced.

Val proceeded to hold up a stripy yellow sock. "All thanks to Demetri's sock!" She exclaimed.

"We agreed never to mention that again." The green ranger groaned while the red and white rangers laughed.

The three morphed rangers jumped over the bars of the ring and headed over to the two rangers.

"It's okay if you guys want a timeout, we've got this." Demetri said, looking at Starfist.

Nel shook her head. "After that. I'm gonna give that racer a beating he'll not forget."

"I'm with Nel. Let's show him how teamwork always wins the day!" Darren agreed, the two taking their morphers from Demetri's right hand.

"Two, Shark!" "Three, Lion!" "Beasts ready!" The two primers confirmed.

"Primordial Powers, Awaken!" Nel and Darren called, morphing in a flash.

"Lord of the skies! Primal Protector Red!" Demetri started.

"Predator of the deep! Primal Protector Blue!" Nel called out.

"King of the jungle! Primal Protector Yellow!" Darren roared.

"Behemoth of the forest! Primal Protector Green!" Kyle pumped his arm.

"Stalker of the blizzard! Primal Protector White!" Val finished.

"Virtual Players, Real Heroes! Power Rangers, Primal Protectors" The rangers called, posing heroically.

"Tell your boss-" Demetri was cut off in his one liner as Nel and Darren obstructed him.

"Tell your boss, he sucks at games!" The two declared simultaneously.

"Quarters, Show them how to fight properly!" Starfist ordered, managing to keep in character with his bad Scottish accent.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

Outside the arena in an area with a lot of steel beams painted white supporting the structure, the battle was taking place. Kyle smacked a quarter to the floor as further behind him, Demetri was using his chain blade to fend off four of the minions at once. After dispatching another minion, Kyle hammered his fist into yet another of the minions, sending it back with the powerful punch that connected with its head.

Val toppled a Quarter over by wrapping her legs around its head and using her body weight to take it down before delivering clawed attacks at its face. Now fighting with another, she pushed against its weapon before delivering a roundhouse kick to its head.

Using his chain blade, Demetri wrapped it around a Quarter, punching an approaching one in the face and fending off another with a kick before reeling in his chain and causing the Quarter to spark as it was tossed to the ground.

Clawing at Starfist, neither Darren or Nel would give up as the villain was pushed back by their simultaneous clawing attacks, that sparked the racer with each hit. No matter what Starfist tried, they just kept coming as he was worn down.

"Try my barreling axe attack!" He roared as he pulled out his axe and sent it blasting at them.

Yet even then, his attack was dodged easily by their agility. And so he proceeded to attack physically, but still he couldn't handle their dodging capabilities or the strength that came with it. Just as he was about to bear his axe down on Darren though, the yellow ranger caught it mid-blow. Starfist was surprised, seeing that the yellow ranger had activated his Primordial Power up, and was now using his claws to pull against Starfist's grip.

"You made me hurt a lady today, and you're gonna pay for that!" Darren called as he twisted the axe even more before pushing it up and exposing the racer's body. Dealing a powerful lightning slash to his body.

Darren was indeed making him pay now, knocking the robotic viking to the ground as he slashed furiously at the racer. Pulling Starfist onto his feet and kicking him into the air.

"Nel, your turn!" He said as she too called upon her powerup.

She leapt into the air, spinning and forming a spinning cyclone of water as she smashed back and forth into Starfist as he wailed in pain. Slamming powerfully into him and sending him back into the ground for the two to finish him off.

"Let's end together!" Nel told him as the others came up behind them.

"We're right behind you." Demetri told them with a nod.

Each of them drew their Pixelator and Nel and Darren set it to blade mode while the others set it to blaster mode. "Primal bonds, beast slash!" Nel called as the rangers lined up and charged their energy, directing it at Starfist.

"Primal bonds, beast blast!" Demetri called as he, Val and Kyle charged up a shot each.

The three shots went off first after Nel and Darren leapt into the air, the blast hitting Starfist with great accuracy. Then the combined power of the blue and yellow ranger's blades came down on the villain like a pair of jaws as they finished him off and he began to surge with energy.

"Great barrel god. Please save me!" He pleaded as he exploded and the two rangers celebrated for a brief moment.

However, as expected, the game was not finished yet. The now infamous words followed by that ever familiar voice came yet again.

"Extra life!" It called as from a mound of coins, a humongous Starfist emerged.

"Thank you, barrel god!" He exclaimed in relief.

The rangers pulled out their cubes and raised them to the sky where they flew out of their hands and grew in size. The rangers proceeded to jump inside of their zords once at maximum size.

Demetri keyed in for the Primal Warrior. "1! 2! 3! Protector Mech, initialised!" The three zords formed into cubes before landing atop one another. "3! 2! 1! Primal Warrior, Engage!" the morpher called as the spike fell from the sky into the megazord, spinning to reveal the head and pulling out to become the sword before the megazord fully formed up.

"Primal Warrior, Player Ready!" The three rangers in the megazord confirmed as the eyes lit up and the megazord stood ready to fight.

Starfist was holding another bag of netting. "If I capture you again it'll make for a great 'Barrel Bonanza Battle Royale!" I'm gonna enjoy this one!" He laughed in his terrible scottish accent.

"Oh cut the crap, I'm getting tired of all these aliens with terrible put on accent, let's just beat this bozo and go rest."

"Well if that's how you'd prefer it." Demetri said, getting out the miniature Giraffezooka and throwing it out to render at full size.

"Aw come on, you're now even giving me a chance here!" Starfist complained as the Primal Warrior grasped ahold of the weapon.

"Giraffezooka, unload!" The three called, placing their lit up Primers into their control cubes. One again, a relentless hail of bullets blasted Starfist to smithereens.

"Barrel god, your son is coming!" Starfist cried out as he exploded for one last time.

"Game Over!" Nel and Darren said together, triumphantly.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

Back on the racer's command ship, Meizong was rather grumpy. "Another week's pay down the drain, all thanks to your stupid player, I never get to buy nice things because of you fuse!" She complained before storming out.

"At least his barrel ranting days are over. Now I can get some sleep, and this headache will finally go away. Then I can get back to planning for their defeat." Hexagon said in a rather mellow voice.

"Indeed he did fail in the end. But the quality of the fight was top notch. I must commend you for that. Yet you did fail, and now, here's a bucket and mop, get scrubbing deck nineteen." Pivillinous informed Fuse, pointing to the mop and bucket beside him.

With a gulp Fuse picked up the cleaning supplies and headed out. "Next time I'm not gonna offer up such a thing. Now I've gotta clean up after those slimey creatures on deck nineteen." He sighed.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

Back at the arcade, the rangers were resting after the taxing battle. Darren approached Nel out of the blue. "Nel, I'm sorry about earlier. If there's anything I can do to make it up."

"Now that you mention it." She said, with a devious smile, proceeding to take her shoes off. "I need a foot rub."

"One moment please." He said darting off and proceeding to return, dragging Kyle over and taking him down to the floor. "One second thought, Kyle has agreed to do it in my absence while I-uh… do things. Bye!" He informed her darting off leaving Nel with a chuckle.

"I swear down if I find the person responsible for my suffering, they're gonna get an earful." Kyle groaned.

"Less talking more foot rubbing." She ordered to the ranger who became sacred and did so.

At that moment Flynn walked into the arcade. "Hey, I'm back from visiting my crazy uncle who thinks he's a different animal every single week. This week he was a sheep if anyone cares!" Then he spotted the two rangers and immediately began to walk back out the door. "I'm gonna go… there's something I forgot to pick up." He said leaving again.

"Why won't anyone have mercy!?" Kyle complained.

"Oh don't be a baby!" Penelope remarked in response to his outcry.

 **|Primal Protectors|**

 **That is chapter five of Primal Protectors finished. Darren is a bit too chivalrous, but with a bit of… violent persuasion, he put that aside till they got free. Nel called out so many people and Kyle suffered once more, slightly my idea slightly a nod to the episode, but he'll only survive if the Sentai lets Tusk off the hook in the future. And then there's all the little nods to the Sentai and jokes involving it. All in all a fun chapter to finish up.**

 **College is very nearly almost done now and I'm on track for finishing by friday, so expect Steam Force in the weekend. That said here's your synopsis for the next chapter coming at the end of June or the start of July.**

 **Next Chapter: Lord of the Apes**

 **Synopsi: After intercepting a TV episode of a Jamaican gorilla man from outer space, Flynn is inspired and proceeds to create a new system to help fight the Racers. The issue though lies in Demetri himself when trying to activate it. But will the untimely arrival of a Team Leader on the battlefield be the push he needs to unlock his new potential? Find out next time on Power Rangers: Primal Protectors.**


	6. Chapter 6: Lord of the Apes

**Primal Protectors**

 **Chapter 6: Lord of the Apes**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Power Rangers or the source material for this fic, Doubutsu Sentai Zyouhger or any other things referenced such as certain games.**

 **The characters appearing were made by: AyatoHattori, Dash master 48, KidF1ash, bobmanv2.0, Thewhatzupwriter26 and Me. Gadget The Critic is the man behind the monsters.**

The city of LA was as calm as it would ever be as the blazing afternoon sun beat down on the citizens of the city. However things were about to take a bad turn as a large squadron of the racer's fighters descended upon the city, firing away.

Inside the central cockpit was the next in a long line of weekly racer champions chosen for their specific talents. This seemed to be a cross between a fish and a roman centurion helmet while also armed to the teeth with… well… teeth. A set of large chompers that appeared to be able to crush anything. It consisted as gold and pink colours for most of its body while having a navy blue trimming, its fin however, was a bright red.

"This might have taken some time earth, but Chompers is here and ready to munch everything! Team Hexagon for the win! Player ready, game start!" The Racer known as Chompers enthused as the small fleet of fighters flew down, it was going well for them, until they heard the sound of a giant machine.

"Primal Warrior, Player Ready!" Demetri, Darren and Penelope declared as the Primal Warrior Megazord stood with its sword drawn, ready to destroy the fighters.

"So soon? Your rangers are no fun!" Chompers complained as he looked over the shoulder of the Quarter pilot. "Ah well… Blast them!" He othered to the Quarter pilots who obeyed, sending out laser beams to attack the megazord.

Each of the blasts missed the megazord to which Darren gave a laugh. "Who taught you guys to shoot? Storm-" Before he could finish off his sentence, Nel cut him off.

"Darren, if you finish that sentence, the next person on the receiving end of my pixelator in a fight is you." She threatened before giving her control cube a spin, cutting down a few attack groups of the fighters which were coming close.

As one of the three ship groups circled around to flank the megazord, Val, inside her Tiger zord, gave her control cube a spin. Sending out multiple energy boomerangs from the claws of the zord that blasted that and a few other groups to pieces. "You guys should stop bickering and watch your backs next time." Val commented.

Meanwhile, Kyle in his zord, transformed it to cube mode and send it flying to crash into multiple small groups, tearing through them easily. "As long as the bad puns and old jokes stay non-existent, we have no more bad accented alien encounters, and I manage to stay sane through the day, I'm not one to complain."

"Well if we're all done, time to wrap this up." Demetri told them, to which they gave a firm nod of understanding. The red ranger held out the giraffe zord in its folded up miniature form and threw it out at the viewing screen, sending it out and allowing it to scale to its normal size.

It proceeded to transform into the Giraffezooka and was followed by the Primal Warrior picking it up and aiming it at what was left of Chompers' aerial attack squadron.

Inside the cockpit, Chompers knocked the Quarter out of the way and took the controls. "Idiot, you're gonna get me killed, let's show you how it's really done!" Chompers told the Quarter who gave incomprehensive gibberish responses.

The three rangers in the Megazord completed the animal symbol on their primers and slotted them into their control cubes. "Giraffezooka, Unload!" The three rangers called as it fired out repeatedly at the ships, blasting them to dust.

Before the ships were destroyed, Chompers bailed from the ship and freefell until he dropped down like a missile into a dense area of the woods.

"I've got no clue where he went, he's definitely not dead, or we'd be fighting him as a giant, or maybe not, who knows at this point? Anyway, I have a feeling that we should be looking for him just in case but Flynn told us to get back as soon as possible, so I vote that we don't bother wasting time going after that fish head." Kyle informed them all.

"Ah, makes sense, anyway, super brawlin' combat fighter just came out and I was planning on going out and getting it just before this attack happened." Nel added.

"Why does that sound like a chinese knock off of Triple A title fighter games?" Demetri asked as they disembarked from their zords and put them away before demorphing.

"Because it is a knock off." She told them, they looked blankly indicating some elaboration was required. Nel gave a sigh. "Being the best there is at fighters, to my knowledge, I've beaten every single fighting game over and over, something my parents wouldn't really approve of in terms of how much time I've spent if they were around, so I decided to find all the small budget knock offs and master them, because you never know what you might pick up from them."

"Remind me again how poor your grades are at school." Kyle joked, getting a quick jab in the ribs from the blue ranger who also had a pouty face after that remark.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

Within the racers command ship, Hexagon was furious, kicking over the decorative pieces in the ship. "How can that worthless slack jawed sushi roll have gotten himself stuck before the game even started!? Honestly, why does the boss give me all the weirdos?"

"Furious are we Hexagon? Maybe I should have your turn." Fuse laughed, clasping his hand on the shoulder of the other team leader.

"Can it you defective dishwasher before I pull the plug!" Hexagon yelled, even more infuriated now, before marching over to the exit door.

"And where are you going, grumpy guts?" Meizong mocked, as the door opened.

"To earth, I'll smack some sense into that fish faced loser before long!" He declared,storming out to take care of the pressing matter.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

It was later in the day now as the rangers had returned to the Arcade. Darren, Demetri and Kyle had just come down from the roof with Flynn after adjusting the satellite for whatever purpose the mentor had for it.

Nel was sat down with a controller in her hand as was Val, both of them playing the fighting videogame that the blue ranger had mentioned earlier. As the four males approached the large TV, Nel jumped up in triumph. "I Win again!" She exclaimed as Val's character on screen was defeated.

"Well, we finally got the satellite working how it was, so if you'll all just gather around I'll show you what I found." Flynn told them as they switched to a TV channel as they all gathered around.

The picture wasn't that great seeing as where the signal was coming from, however what they saw on the screen was rather surprising. On the screen was a humanoid Gorilla, clad in bright colours and wearing a scarf. On his head was what appeared to be the stereotypical hat you'd think someone would wear if they were Jamaican.

"Hola niños y niñas! Larry the dancing Gorilla here! Today I'm going to teach you all how to dance the hula!" The talking Gorilla named Larry said as the rangers watched it.

"I swear to god that someone's trying to mess with me…" Kyle grimaced as he was forced to sit through the torturous hour long broadcast.

As the end credits for the show rolled, the rangers gave a sigh of relief as it was finished. Flynn got up and headed over to the large monitor setup, gesturing for the rangers to follow him.

"Now that you've wasted an hour of my life, which I'm never going to get back after that trauma fest. Mind telling us why?" Kyle asked, still recovering from the Gorilla dancing.

"Of course. You see, that Gorilla isn't a man in a suit, but he's an actual Gorilla man from a planet not too far from here. They call the planet, Zooland." Flynn told them all.

"You really don't think that's really corny?" Val asked, to which Flynn just shrugged.

"It's full of tonnes of different humanoid animals who are really alike to our own animals here on earth. It's also where I expect the meteor carrying the power source of your morphers came from. Anyway, seeing this, I thought to upgrade Demetri's morpher a bit so that it could harness the power of the gorilla too. So if you'll hand me your morpher, all it takes is a few minutes hooked up to the system." Flynn informed them, holding his hand out for the red ranger to place the morpher in his hand.

As Demetri did so, their monster alert alarm sounded off and Demetri looked at the others with conflict. "We'll hold 'em off long enough to come in, just be sure to show us how your new form works." Darren told the red ranger.

Demetri gave a firm nod. "Good luck you guys." He wished them before the four headed off to deal with the Racer threat, unprepared for what they were about to face.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

At a clearing within the forest area, Hexagon roamed, mumbling about the idiocy of Chompers as the four unmorphed rangers ran up to see the Racer Team Leader scanning the area.

"That idiot Chompers better not be dead." He groaned, not yet noticing the four rangers.

"I don't think he's seen us yet." Nel said in a hushed tone.

"Is he made of cubes?" Darren asked, looking at the cubic Team Leader.

"Why send another Racer out if there's one still on the loose?" Kyle asked, perplexed by it.

"Maybe to retrieve the other one." Val suggested.

"Guys, hate to cut off your theories but he's looking right at us." Nel interjected, to which the rangers snapped out of their thoughts and looked at the racer Leader.

Hexagon turned to face the rangers, his menacing appearance making the rangers shudder. "The rangers? So we meet in person… Finally." He laughed, maniacally.

"And just who are you?" Kyle asked inquisitively.

"The game's early and so are you. But I guess just this once, I can humor you." He laughed, approaching them. "I am Hexagon, champion of the Cuboids and Leader of Team Fight. You don't want to face me rangers, I am too much of a challenge for you. Run along and allow me to retrieve my player, then I'll be out of your hair and the game can carry on as it should."

Nel smirked. "If you really think you're the best fighter around, how about you prove it to us!" The blue ranger challenged.

Hexagon was about to protest, however he stopped himself. "You and I might be much alike blue, you have a lot of fight in you, and I never turn down a challenge, Prepare to fight and come at me with everything you've got!" He called out to them.

The rangers pulled out their Rubik Primers and keyed in their numbers, closing them up and twisting the top. "Primordial Powers, Awaken!" The four called, morphing and drawing their Pixelators in blaster mode, firing them the instant they finished transforming.

They hit Hexagon, but did absolutely nothing to the Team Leader as he gave a smirk. "This should be an easy fight, nethertheless, let me see what you can do." He said as the rangers switched their weapons to blade mode and charged in, Darren leading the others into the close quarters fight.

Each of them slashed at the warrior but his armour was too thick, their weapons doing relatively nothing to the Racer. They repeatedly slashed with their blades, running around him as they did, all the time Hexagon just stood there like a statue laughing at their weapon's ineffectiveness.

"You don't become the champion of a world, conqueror of many others and leader of the Racers' stronger forces by being a weakling that can't take a few hits from a bunch of soft humans like you!" Hexagon roared as he threw his arms out, sending a shockwave out that spanned a good few feet and send the rangers flying to the ground.

"Hey ugly!" The voice of Demetri called as the red ranger ran in. He held his Primer in his hand.

"Watch out, that guy's a Team Leader, he calls himself Hexagon, and he's crazy strong." Kyle informed Demetri, panting as he did.

"Team Leader huh? As a fellow team leader then, nice to meet you. AS a ranger, I'm gonna kick your butt!" Demetri called out flipping open his primer. "Let's see how you like this new form!"

Demetri keyed in the new number. "Six, Gorilla!" The morpher called. "Beast Ready!" It confirmed as DEmetri closed it up.

"Primordial Power, Awaken!" He called out, twisting the top to complete the symbol. It did light up, however it seemed to short out as a negative beeping came from the morpher. "Huh?" Demetri asked in confusion.

"Player incompatible, calibration required." It informed the ranger.

The red ranger gave a sigh as Hexagon let out a laugh, come at me with everything you've got red, it looks like you might as well seeing as whatever you tried seemed to backfire!" The Team Leader mocked.

Demetri growled. "Fine, I'll have to beat you without it!" He called out, angry, keying in for his usual form and twisting the top. "Primordial Power, Awaken!" He called, transforming into his standard eagle red ranger suit.

The others rose up, each of them dotted around Hexagon. "Primal Power ups, Unleash!" The five of them called, donning their powered up appearances.

Demetri dove in creating a tornado of fire as he clashed with Hexagon, yet the Leader simply grabbed ahold of the red ranger and stopped the technique in its tracks with his brutish arms, tossing the red ranger to the floor.

Next to come at Hexagon was Darren, who sent out a lighting slash at Hexagon which caught the brute in what would be close to a real world stun-lock. As the Leader turned, he was hit with a gust of wind followed by the white rangers energy slashed. Still overwhelmed, Nel took her chance and used her momentum to become the high pressure water spinner and slam directly into Hexagon, however the brute grasped ahold and span around, using the momentum to toss the blue ranger to the ground too.

Stepping in front of the white ranger was Kyle who slammed his elephant feet into the ground, causing a large quake to occur, however Hexagon held his own, drawing his large and heavy sword and bearing it down on the green ranger.

He then proceeded to send out bursts of energy with each slash, sending them at the rangers as they danced around, struggling to keep up and dodge the bursts of energy.

As Demetri lept over one of the bursts and landed to the floor, he spread his wings again and flew forward, smashing into Hexagon and staggering him for a second while the blue and yellow rangers grab either side of the Team Leader. He threw them off before Val could land an attack and as Demetri landed, he bore his sword upon the red ranger who just managed to dodge it unscathed and grab hold of it, getting close enough to land a few punches on Hexagon.

When the red ranger was kicked away, his other four teammates ran in, but whenever one got close, they be cut down or kicked to the ground. Eventually they winded up in a pile on top of each other where Hexagon brought his fist down upon them before slamming his sword into them, sending them flying as Demetri swooped just too high to be able to catch any of them.

Hexagon sent one last energy slash at them, which severely injured them and caused them to yell out in pain as they collapsed to the ground and demorphed. Demetri saw them down and pulled out his Eagle Chain Blade.

"Don't worry everyone I'll deal with him!" He called out, swooping down and clashing his blade against Hexagon's.

"One on one, just how I prefer it." Hexagon told the red ranger as their weapons clashed against each others.

The Racer knocked the ranger to the floor and as Demetri flew up to escape a blow. Hexagon grabbed ahold of the ranger's foot and slammed him into the ground. Before he could finish off Demetri however, the ranger put up his Chain Blade to stop the blow, yet he was struggling to keep it up.

Kicking the ranger, and slashing him on the back as he got up, Hexagon was ready to end the red ranger and as Demetri stood to face him, the Racer cut him across the torso twice and delivered a powerful punch to the ranger, sending him flying to the ground and causing him to demorph.

"It has been fun red ranger, and even if you don't have the best of power, it sure was fun. Good battle! Now I will give you a warrior's end!" He declared, sending a blast of energy from his sword straight at demetri. This sent him flying with a pained yell as he was tossed in the air and caused his to be sent down some banking into the shallow river below.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

Demetri was in a shallow, almost dried up riverbank, his vision was blurry but he could make out a figure that was familiar to him. "Are you?" He asked, struggling to talk.

It was the humanoid Gorilla from the TV show he had seen the night before. "Larry the Gorilla at your service Amigo. Well I'm more of a delusion because of the concussion you have right now but that's not important. You need to get up and keep fighting. You don't think he's gonna quit if he finds you here, if it proves that the rangers are so weak their leader gets destroyed so easily by him do you?" The delusion of the Gorilla told him.

"Nice to meet you Larry, I'm Jangles the moon monkey." Demetri joked, affected by the concussion. "But I should just let him finish me. I'm not really cut out to be a leader. I might not have lost a game, but even before I became a ranger, I was on a break from the FPS team I led after a botched finals match. After some intel which I didn't bother to verify, I sent my men in wanting to win the game quickly and they were sent to slaughter. We managed to win in the end, but by the skin of our teeth. After that I took a break and came here to try and forget about it for a bit. Yet today just brought it back, letting them go without us preparing, guess that's why I couldn't change."

"Listen, don't beat yourself up for past mistakes, even if today seems like a repeat. Just stay calm and be determined to make up for it. Now stop imagining me and transform!" The delusion Larry ordered.

"But it said it needed to-" Demetri was cut off as the morpher informed the ranger of the exact opposite of what he was about to say.

"Calibration completed." It said as the red ranger got up slowly.

Hexagon approached with his sword drawn. "I'm not done with you yet ranger, I thought it high time we put one of you down for good!" He called out, slashing with his sword at Demetri, the red ranger quickly morphing and catching the blade before it hit him.

'I wouldn't have been able to do this before… Is it because it finished calibrating?' Demetri thought as Hexagon wrestled with the red ranger. He twisted the sword and threw Hexagon to the side empowered with whatever new power it had given him. "I get it now. All I need to do to take you down is change, with the power of the Gorilla!" He declared.

"Morphosis!" Demetri called out, pulling the bottom of the front of the helmet up for it to flip up and reveal a mask in the theme of a Gorilla. Red energy surged and a shockwave occurred as the red ranger changed form. The image of an eagle on his suit's chest turned to pixels and rearranged themselves, turning to a highly detailed gorilla face with a white burst of energy while the physical build of his chest arms and hands became buff like a gorilla.

"Lord of the Apes! Primal Protector Red!" Demetri called out, slamming his fists hard against the ground.

Batting his fists against his chest, the newly powered up red ranger charged forward as Hexagon readied to beat the ranger again. "Let's see what you've got red ranger!" He challenged.

Demetri punched away Hexagon's sword with his right fist and pummeled the Team Leader's face with a punch from his left fist. A swing with his right arm winded Hexagon as the red ranger jumped up high, bearing his powerful fist down on Hexagon and literally hammering the warrior down into the ground.

Hexagon groaned from his place on the ground. "You're strong ranger, now finish me off. I want to see how far you can go!" He coughed challenging the ranger.

"You asked for it." Demetri told the Team Leader who smirked.

Demetri battered his chest and roared out as Hexagon got up. He grabbed ahold of and wrestled with the Racer pushing him backwards as he powered on. As they exchanged blows, Demetri grabbed Hexagon's blocky fists and twisted them so that his guard was down before flipping him over and blinding him with high pressure steam that was produced from the helmet's nostrils. Hexagon was backed up against a tree as Demetri slammed into the Racer, sending him far back with a powerful force and causing a shockwave with each tree the villain hit.

The two's fists met and energy was sent up Hexagon's arm blasting it and making it become useless. "Time to end this, Gorilla Smash!" Demetri declared, summoning all of his strength into a final punch that connected with Hexagon and caused him to surge with energy.

As he lay on the ground coercing with energy, he laughed. "You may have bested me today ranger, but be warned, I will defeat you!" He declared as Demetri turned around before the Team Leader exploded into a pile of purple blocks.

"Not likely. For you, it's Game Over." Demetri said as the last laughs of Hexagon echoed in the air as Demetri beat his fists with his hands one last time as the fight against the leader of Team Fight was finally over.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

Fuse stood inside the viewing room in disbelief, this was the first time he had known Hexagon to lose a fight. "First Pike and now Hexagon? How is this possible!?"

Meizong pulled out her Doxin Battlepad and was ready to rejuvenate Hexagon before she was stopped by her uncle.

"There will be no need for an extra life today Meizong. Go buy yourself something nice with the money we didn't spend doing so." He told her.

"Good, I'll buy some disks, then I can burn the video of Hexagon getting his butt kicked to them all and sell them so everyone sees it, this is going to be fun!" She enthused, skipping away.

"But sir why aren't we letting him continue?" Fuse asked, confused as to what game Pivillinous was playing.

The lead villain chuckled. "I didn't pick Hexagon as the leader of my strongest forces for nothing. But all in good time Fuse, all in good time." He said cryptically, chuckling again and resting his head on his right arm…

 **|Primal Protectors|**

 **That is chapter 6 of Primal Protectors. It was a fun one to write, mainly for the jokes and references to the source material in there. The character of Larry the Dancing Gorilla was actually initially thought up of by Gadget in the bio for a future monster and is most likely themed off of Larri from Zyuohger and maybe, just maybe we'll see more appearances, or he'll end up as a delusion again somewhere down the line.**

 **I had a busy week at the end of last week so I couldn't really update anything as I said I would. I'll be trying my best to get one of each thing, Mythos, Martial Strike and Steam Force, out per week and hopefully more than that and I hope to get out another Primal Protectors out so it comes out twice a month. That's all I got for now, have a nice day.**

 **Next Chapter: Primal Sharpshooter**

 **Synopsis: Even after the defeat of a Team Leader, there is still an alien, which looks like it can eat just about anything, on the loose. Even if they beat him on the ground, it looks like they'll need an even stronger configuration to defeat Chompers. Can they rise up to the challenge of such an opponent? Find out next time on Power Rangers: Primal Protectors.**


	7. Chapter 7: Primal Sharpshooter

**Primal Protectors**

 **Chapter 7: Primal Sharpshooter**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Power Rangers or the source material for this fic, Doubutsu Sentai Zyouhger or any other things referenced such as certain games.**

 **The characters appearing were made by: AyatoHattori, Dash master 48, KidF1ash, bobmanv2.0, Thewhatzupwriter26 and Me. Gadget The Critic is the man behind the monsters.**

Last time on Power Rangers: Primal Protectors. After repelling an attack from one of Team Fight's players known as Chompers, the rangers were subject to viewing a rather strange TV show which inspired Flynn to create something new to aid the team in their fight. The Team Leader, Hexagon headed to earth to find his lost player, only to encounter the rangers. After thoroughly destroying them, he proceeded to do the same to Demetri who suffered from a concussion, yet with some help from a hallucination, the red ranger activated his second ranger form and destroyed Hexagon, leaving a pile of blocks in the LA wilderness and claiming victory over yet another Team Leader. Or has he?

As the moonlight seeped through the gaps in the leaves of the dense forest area, the blocky remains began to shake as some unknown force drew them together. A blinding blue light shone where the blocks were merging, rising higher as the blocks kept constructing. Reforming the deadly and powerful Hexagon.

"Now to find that dreadful excuse for a player." Hexagon groaned, placing one of his cubic hands on his head.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

Early morning in downtown LA was rather quaint overall compared to how the city was the rest of the time. However, calmness never lasts for long.

"Time to start chomping!" The irritating and childish voice of Chompers exclaimed, his words echoing through the currently empty area before the fishlike racer began to devour an office building layer by layer in quick succession.

The building was quickly devoured and the now replenished Chompers jumped down into a small plaza, his teeth clattering around as he let out a burp.

"Ah, buildings taste great. Time for another, or two, or three!" He laughed, walking with a spring to his step as he picked another office building for his next meal.

No sooner had he taken a few steps that the five rangers ran onto scene to see the gluttonous racer and realise that he was the same opponent from yesterday.

"Hey it's him!" Darren identified, pointing at Chompers in realisation.

"I told you we should've finished him off while we had him running." Kyle remarked as the teens stood opposite the racer.

"Actually you didn't want to, you said to just not bother with chasing after him and probably said it was a waste of time." Val retorted causing the green ranger to grumble.

"Ah come on, what is with you people, you're spoiling my breakfast!" Chompers complained, going into a tantrum.

"Ah quit whining you big baby! It's your fault I have a headache, if you don't stop, I'm sure that Meizong has some use for you." The voice of Hexagon rang across the area, causing the rangers to pause in surprise at the villain's return.

"Hexagon…" Demetri said, not sure what to make of this new situation.

"We all saw you get wiped out by Demetri yesterday, how can you still be alive?" Darren asked, also surprised by the sudden reappearance of their enemy.

"Tough luck for you I guess, but my people are strong. As the strongest of the Cuboids, I am able to put myself back together whenever I want, that's how I became the champion of my world. That's how I'll prove I'm better than all of you! Especially you, red ranger." Hexagon explained to the rangers.

"So you basically have an infinite number of lives, hardly seems fair." Nel responded. "Almost like you're a no good cheater."

"You better watch what you say to me, blue." Hexagon threatened with a growl. "Now as much as I'd like to wipe you all out again, with a different outcome this time. Since Chompers is now out and about, I don't need to stick around." He finished before turning away and walking off as a stack of the large green coins teleported him away back to the racers command ship.

Each of the five rangers pulled out their rubik primers and keyed in their animals before twisting it around to activate it and calling out. "Primordial Powers, Awaken!"

Each of them were now morphed in their usual suits as they charged in, Demetri leading and starting off with a kick that Chompers easily dodged. Nel and Kyle attacked simultaneously, first hitting the racer and then grabbing ahold of his arms as Demetri, Darren and Val all attacked at once, using their suit's claws to damage Chompers.

Chompers let out a pained yell before shaking off the green and blue rangers still holding him before charging at the yellow and white rangers who just managed to get out of the way before being hit by the racer player.

The five rangers regrouped and jumped back, bracing themselves in preparation for whatever Chompers was about to do next.

"You guys are pretty tough, I'll give you that, but there's a reason I've always won in the fights I've had. And that's because I eat a lot!" He exclaimed as he scampered over to the nearest building and leapt up high, much to the rangers surprise.

The racer began devouring yet another office building and there wasn't anything that they could do about it. As soon as Chompers had eaten enough of the building to destabilize it, he leapt from the building into the air.

"Bye bye!" He called, taunting the five of them as debris fell from the building.

"Hey get back here coward!" Kyle yelled as Chompers disappeared yet again.

"Wait Kyle. What if there was anyone near the building? If something fell on them they might be trapped." Val pointed out.

Kyle folded his arms and sighed. "I guess you're right, we better be quick though, longer we leave that guy on the loose, the worse things are gonna get."

The five of the made their way through the rubble of the former office building to see a young girl, about eight years old trapped under a large sheet of concrete. Yet the strange part was the gorilla man standing over her, attempting to pull the large concrete slab off of her.

The five rangers demorphed with Demetri having a look of skepticism on his face. "You guys… You're seeing this too right?" He asked to which they all nodded.

"Yeah, why wouldn't we be?" Val asked in response, wanting a reason for his odd question.

"Well, the last time I saw a gorilla man, I had a concussion, so I thought things could've gotten a little weird again."

The gorilla man spotted them and got up, waving to them. "Hey, I need some help over here, there's a little girl trapped under some rubble!" he called.

"Leave it to me." Demetri told the gorilla man, pulling out his rubik primer.

"Six, Gorilla!" It announced "Beast ready!" It confirmed as Demetri closed it and completed the animal icon.

"Primordial Power, Awaken!" He called out, morphing into his gorilla form.

He quickly headed to where the girl was trapped and much to the gorilla man and the young girl's surprise, flung the rubble off effortlessly before demorphing.

The gorilla man headed over to the red ranger. "Thank's for your help. Name's Stan and I'm a performer, put on shows for the kids in the park. I was on my way there when all this happened."

"So you're not a real gorilla?" Kyle asked to which Stan shook his head. "Oh that's a relief, I don't know how many cruel jokes I can take from the universe."

Darren patted his comrade on the back. "Don't worry, I'm sure it has something in store for you later." He joked to which Kyle sighed.

"I'd be kinda mad you said that if you weren't so accurate. I'm more worried that you actually got something right for a change." Kyle responded with a light insult.

"Well if that's all, I have to go get this little girl to safety. Thanks for all your help!" He said to them before guiding the young girl out of the ruined office building.

"Any time Stan!" Demetri waved him off.

Nel gave a relieved sigh. "Now that all this is over, can we finally go get breakfast, I'm starving."

"Don't let Chompers catch you saying that, he'll want to come with." Val joked, getting a laugh out of the others.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

Back within the racer command ship, Hexagon had just walked into the viewing room, looking more grumpy than usual. He stomped along the floor, his path immediately going to the bar.

"Hey, Meizong, get me something strong, my head's banging again." He ordered, with a groan.

Meizong's lips curled, giving her a smug expression. "Rough night I see. I have it on disk if you want a copy." She said, poking fun at him as she went over to the bar to make him a drink. "But honestly, with all the drinks I've been pouring you lately, I think you should start paying me.

"Put it on my tab." Hexagon remarked as Pivillinous tilted his head in the direction of the team leader.

"It's good to see you've returned, Hexagon. I assume regenerating on earth was quite eventful for you? But it was an intriguing battle I must admit." The villain greeted his subordinate.

"I feel like I threw out my back, Is that enough for you?" Hexagon responded, still grouchy from the experience.

"Keep this up and you'll be as useless as Pike was in his old age, then again, you are getting pretty old." Meizong poked at Hexagon before finishing making his drink and handing it him.

Hexagon downed the drink and wiped his mouth before standing up. "I'll get those damn rangers next time. Nobody gets the better of Hexagon in the end. I'll always have the last laugh!" He professed.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

It was now early afternoon on the busy streets of LA and the streets were busy. A large crowd stopped in their tracks and watched as Chompers jumped from a low pedestrian bridge and span around again.

"Looks like I'm back for a second course!" He laughed as the civilians ran in terror, all the while Chompers laughing sadistically. "So many choices, so much room. Oh I'm like a kid in a candy store. To hell with it, I want it all!" He scampered around, trying to decide which building to eat first. "This one!" He exclaimed, leaping up toward a building.

Before he could begin devouring the building however, a blast of energy hit the racer player and caused him to fall back down to the face first, his large lower jaw trapped his upper jaw.

"Oww, my teeth! It can't get up!" Chompers complained, trying to get out of his present situation.

The rangers, save Demetri, ran up wielding their Pixelators in blaster mode. "There you are! Finally found you." Kyle called out as the rangers lined up ready to fight Chompers.

Nel looked at the others, putting her Pixelator to her side for a second. "You sure it was a good idea to leave Demetri at Big Burger?" She asked.

"Well he was in the bathroom when Flynn told us that Chompers was on the loose again, so it's his own fault." Darren responded before Kyle cleared his throat to get his teammate's attention.

"Guys, can we focus on fighting for now?" He asked,slightly irritated they were talking about it in a fight.

The four charged with their Pixelators aimed as Chompers finally got free and jumped up to face them. The rangers switched their weapons to blade mode as Val attacked first, just missing Chompers by a few inches.

Darren struck with his Pixelator causing some sparks and was then followed up by Nel attacking Chompers, sending forwards and causing him to be surrounded by the rangers who all attempted to attack him at once.

However Nel's job at moving him went a little too well, sending him too far forwards and causing all the rangers to miss their attacks as Chompers turned to face the rangers again.

"Man you guys are bugging me! Get them Quarters!" He yelled in frustration, throwing up bunch of coins to summon the racer minions.

Darren kicked back the Quarters and began wrestling with them, meanwhile Val was using her Pixelator blade to strike the Quarters with low slashes. Nel swung her opponent around while using her blade to slash at them. Kyle stayed at a distance from his opponents, opting to strike them from further away and parry their attacks.

The yellow ranger vaulted over a low barrier and slashed a Quarter before driving it backwards. Nel leapt down onto a Quarter, pulling the minion to the floor before getting up and slashing with her weapon at four more of the minions that had surrounded her.

Val kicked a Quarter in the head as she jumped down onto the ground, rolling before standing up again, Kyle managed to block an attack from a Quarter that was meant for the white ranger as the two began fighting a cluster of the minions that had gathered to overwhelm them both.

As Kyle disarmed a Quarter, Chompers' mouth was watering as his stomach grumbled. "Those weapons look real tasty. I'm hungry again!" He enthused, running into the fight, his jaw bobbing up and down as he did.

The ranger saw his coming at them and managed to dodge the racer as he began chomping at them to devour their weapons. Darren attacked Chompers with a sideways attack where his sword went straight into the jaws of the racer. Chompers clamped down on the Pixelator as Darren struggled to get it out.

"Hey let go you overgrown fish!" The yellow ranger grunted as he tried to wrestle the blade out of the mouth of Chompers.

The racer threw Darren off and turned as Kyle and Nel were about to attack, trapping their weapons too in his toothy maw before throwing them to the ground too. In a desperate attempt to free her teammates' weapons, Val attacked and her weapon was also caught in a similar manner too, trapping all four Pixelator blades between his monstrous jaws before Chompers knocked the white ranger to the ground, like he had done to the rest of them.

Munching them down quickly, the rangers were shocked to see that Chompers had devoured them so easily.

"He ate our weapons?" Nel asked, surprised by this turn of events.

"Mmmm, delicious!" Chompers enthused, burping afterward as the remnants of the Quarters rallied behind him. "Time for the main course rangers!" He laughed as his head fin lit up and sent out a blast of red energy at the same time as the Quarters shot lasers from their weapons, blasting them off of their feet and causing them to demorph.

"This guy's really getting on my nerves." Kyle groaned as the rangers struggled to get up.

"Hmm… Still hungry. I wonder what a ranger tastes like? Or maybe even five! Time to chow down!" He yelled, leaping up into the air and opening his gaping maw to devour the four rangers.

Before he reached the rangers however, he was blasted back by another Pixelator and was trapped on his head, unable to move once again.

Demetri stood with his Pixelator blaster pointed at the racer.

"Took you long enough, newbie." Val smirked as the rangers looked over at their red ranger.

"Well you guys could've given me a heads up." He responded, heading over and helping the four up.

"This guy can eat weapons, so be careful around him." Kyle warned, turning to his leader.

Demetri smirked. "Lucky I don't always need a weapon then."He said, pulling out his primer and flipping it open.

"Six, Gorilla!" It called as he keyed it in, the others doing the usual with their morphers. "Beasts Ready!" Their primers confirmed.

"Primordial Powers, Awaken!" they called, being overlaid by a colourful stream of pixels before it dissipated and they were left in their ranger forms.

"Lord of the Apes! Primal Protector Red!" Demetri started, slamming his fists together.

"Predator of the Deep! Primal Protector Blue!" Penelope called out.

"King of the Jungle! Primal Protector Yellow!" Darren roared.

"Behemoth of the Forest! Primal Protector Green!" Kyle announced, pumping his arm.

"Stalker of the Blizzard! Primal Protector White!" Valerie finished.

"Virtual Players, Real Heroes! Power Rangers, Primal Protectors!" All of the rangers called, a small explosion going off behind them.

Demetri battered his chest with his gorilla hands. "Tell your boss, he sucks at games!"

"What are you stupid Quarters hanging about for? Get them already, otherwise I'll eat you!" Chompers threatened.

Simple minions were no match for the gorilla strength of Demetri as he used his large and powerful fists to slam into them and send them flying. With in no time, the wave of Quarters had been defeated.

"Primordial Power ups, Awaken!" The other rangers called, once more donning their animal themed power ups.

Nel slid in on an artificial stream of water, using her fin to strike Chompers Quickly before heading out for Darren and Val to leap in and claw at either side of Chompers, causing him serious harm before backflipping off of him.

Lining himself up with the racer player, Kyle used his elephant powered feet to stomp the ground hard blasting the ground and causing a minor quake and in the process knocking over Chompers.

"Cheaty rangers, if you're gonna be like that, then take this!" Chompers yelled, charging up his large head fin with red energy and blasting at the rangers.

They managed to dodge the blows as Demetri swung in from above using his eagle chain blade and doing his best imitation of Tarzan.

"Hey, George of the jungle, mind helping us out?" Kyle asked as he rolled out of the way of another attack.

"You've gotta lighten up." Val laughed at the red rangers antics while trying to avoid their enemy's attacks.

Swinging forward, Demetri came down and performed a kick swing, that sent Chompers flying into the air. On his descent, Demetri powered up a strong punch and battered Chompers before sending him flying once again. Each time he would fall, the gorilla red ranger would hit the racer with his fists, effectively getting Chompers trapped in a loop of pain.

"Hey watch it, you're gonna break my teeth!" The racer player complained as he was battered up and down through the air.

Chompers came down this time with his jaw open, the red ranger getting his fists on the inside of either part of the jaw before the two began to wrestle, jaw strength versus muscle strength. Finally, Demetri shoved up with all his might before everyone heard the distinct sound of bone going where it shouldn't.

"MY JAW! MY JAW! YOU DISLOCATED MY JAW!" Chompers cried out in pain.

"I can do a lot more than that!" Demetri declared as he spun his arm around and gave an uppercut that sent Chompers flying once again.

"Hey, my jaw's fixed!" The racer cheered as he landed with a bang.

The five rangers regrouped, lining up once again. "Let's end this!" Demetri ordered, the rangers proceeded to create a form of pyramid with Kyle and Darren at the bottom, Nel and Val at the sides and Demetri on top.

"Remind me why we're doing this again?" Kyle asked, to which Nel stomped on his back.

"Quit complaining." She responded to which the green ranger groaned.

"But you're too heavy." He complained, if Nel didn't have a helmet on her expression would be a rather furious one after such a remark.

"After we're done here. I'm gonna make you pay." She threatened before Demetri cleared his throat.

"Keep it together guys." He said, the two giving nods before the rangers performed their new finisher.

Pixel energy surrounded them in their colours as they charged up their new attack. "Primal bonds, Kong's fist!" They called as a large red faist made of energy with a pixel aura was rendered and hammered Chompers into the ground causing him to explode as the fist dissipated.

The now infamous words and voice appeared once again, signifying that there was yet another fight on the ranger's hands. "Extra Life."

A now huge Chompers emerged from an explosion of coins. "Thanks for another chance Meizong!" Chompers let out as he stretched his arms.

Demetri pulled out his eagle cube zord before he heard a chime coming from his rubik primer, pulling it out and flipping it open, he noticed that number six was flashing. Keying it in and closing it up before proceeding to complete the cube image, the voice from his primer sprung to life.

"6! Primal Mount Ready! Primal Mount Awaken!" The morpher called as a darker red pixelated cube rendered in and with a burst of white light became another cube zord, currently in miniature form.

The other rangers gathered around. "Is that another zord?" Darren asked, the red ranger gave a nod.

"I think it is, but only one way to find out." He said, taking it and letting it fly up to enlarge, showing its full appearance.

It rose up to the top of a building and folded out, extending its arms and adorning its back mounted cannon.

"Damn that's cool!" Val cheered. Nel also stood in amazement.

"And all I get is a lion." Darren said, rather envious of his teammate's new xord.

"How comes he gets all the cool stuff?" Kyle also asked, rather annoyed that all the special equipment went to the red ranger.

"Looks like the Primal Gorilla's ready for action!" Demetri determined, confident with his new zord.

Demetri leapt up into the cockpit and span his control cube around. "Primal Gorilla, swinging high!" the red ranger called as the new zord came online.

"You and your fancy toys are gonna get eaten up!" Chompers proclaimed.

"I don't think so. I think you need some cubes in your diet!" Demetri called, giving his control cube a spin as the Primal Gorilla tossed stone cubes at Chompers from atop the building, smashing powerfully into the racer player.

The cannon on the back of the zord rose up and created a swing from which the Primal Gorilla swung down, damaging Chompers as it passed by. Demetri gave his control cube another spin as the Primal Gorilla came back around and did the same yet again.

"If you liked that, there's more to come! Eat this!" Demetri called as the cannon reattached and blasted out, hitting Chompers directly

"I'll eat you for that!" Chompers let out as the Primal Gorilla charged forward at him.

Demetri switched his zord quickly into cube mode and slammed it into the gaping jaws of Chompers where once again, the racer's jaw was broken Demetri switched the Primal Gorilla back into zord mode before charging at Chompers once again.

The zord picked the injured Chompers up and threw him far and back to the ground. On the ground, the other ranger were cheering for Demetri.

Kyle looked at Val for a second. "Hey Val, we haven't been up there recently. How about we help out?" The green ranger suggested, to which his teammate agreed before they rendered their cubic zords and joined the fight.

The three zords charged forward side by side. "Okay then, let's give this new combination a spin shall we?" Demetri suggested, keying in the zords to combine.

The three zords jumped through the flaming squares and landed atop each other in cube form. "4! 5! 6! Primal Sharpshooter, Engage!" The Gorilla's connon folded over to create the head and came down to connect to the rest of the body before the arms flipped open and the hornlike attachments over the eyes flipped open to reveal the visor and face of the new megazord combination. The visor lit up with blue light as the Primal Sharpshooter stood ready.

"Primal Sharpshooter huh? Sounds like my kind of thing." Demetri said, smirking under his helmet.

"Just don't get too trigger happy now." Kyle remarked as the Primal Sharpshooter produced a rifle.

"Primal rifle! Time to get blasting!" Demetri laughed as it blasted at Chompers who had just fixed his jaw.

"I'll just eat your gun too!" Chompers exclaimed, running in and chowing down on the gun, much to the surprise of the rangers.

"Man, I'd hate to see what this guy's stomach looks like." Val commented.

"Hopefully we won't have to." The green ranger responded, a hint of worry in his voice.

However the Primal Sharpshooter kept fighting, using its fist to fend off the hungry racer as best it could. When it had gained a footing, the megazord didn't relent, smashing Chompers teeth to breaking point.

Demetri and the others placed their primers into their control cubes with the activated beast image. "Let's end this."

"Eighteen bit rocket punch!" they all called as the Primal Sharpshooter blasted off its fists and rendered new ones each time, constantly battering Chompers until he surged with energy.

"Does this mean I don't get to eat anymore? WHY!?" Chompers cried out as he exploded into a mass of pixels.

"Game Over!" The three rangers in the megazord called out triumphantly.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

It had been a few days since the fight against Chompers and things had once again quietened down. Kyle lazing walked into the arcade to see that most of his friends weren't there.

He saw that Nel was sat down talking with someone when she spotted him. "Oh hey Kyle. Good to see you're here. I was counting on it anyway. Remember Stan? Well he agreed to play that dancing Gorilla off of that TV show the other day, just to teach you." She smirked, getting up and walking up to him.

"What fresh hell is this?" The green ranger asked.

"Consider it revenge for your comments last time." She said walking out the door and leaving the arcade.

"Wait a minute don't leave me here him!" Kyle begged as he watched the blue ranger lock the door so he couldn't get out.

"Hola Amigo!" The Larry impersonator Stan greeted as he stood behind the green ranger, causing him to jump out of his skin.

"Oh god, why me?" Kyle asked as he knew there was no way he was getting out of this one.

 **|Primal Protectors|**

 **That is chapter 7 done and I managed to keep a planned schedule for once! That aside it was a fun, albeit long chapter to write, where does the time go? We had chompers who was another comical villain, Hexagon revealing his regeneration ability, which is quite overpowered in the eyes of the rangers and I think it's really overpowered for even Azald to have in Zyuohger to be honest. I set up some other jokes involving Stan the guy in a gorilla costume and the friendly rivalry between Nel and Kyle was always a fun thing to do. The introduction of the Primal Sharpshooter means things get interesting from here in terms of source material.**

 **Now for the next chapter, if you've seen episode 6 of Zyuohger, you'll know that this is where the source material for this episode came from. Meaning that the next one is the Kamen Rider Ghost crossover episode. As much as I would have liked to do this, the amount of world building and originality I would need to make the chapter something I could be proud of in my eyes is something that would take me too long to do to keep on schedule, but I'd love to do it. I may release it as a separate story to break it down and add more world building to make it something I'd be proud of, but as of this time, I just can't. Its also a fact that an individual episode/chapter of Primal Protectors takes so much out of me, it'd be better off as its own side story that still links into this.**

 **I have something very special that I'll be releasing this saturday and sunday so keep an eye out for that because I think a lot of you are gonna like it for both its content and uniqueness, this is my last update on things till then so I'm just letting everyone know now. That all said, here's your preview of the next chapter.**

 **Next Chapter: Shooting Star**

 **Synopsis: In a chapter with no source episode to be based on, the rangers take time to look over what they've done so far as a meteor shower soars above earth and is in perfect view for the citizens of Los Angeles. Yet when one of these meteors falls to earth, is everything they thought they knew about the power source of their morphers and arsenal about to change? Find out next time on Power Rangers: Primal Protectors.**


	8. Chapter 8: Yeah, Bikerman!

**Primal Protectors**

 **Chapter 8: Yeah, Bikerman!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Power Rangers or the source material for this fic, Doubutsu Sentai Zyouhger or any other things referenced such as certain games.**

 **The characters appearing were made by: AyatoHattori, Dash master 48, KidF1ash, bobmanv2.0, Thewhatzupwriter26 and Me. Gadget The Critic is the man behind the monsters.**

 **I decided to just go with another source material episode and just add in any plot points for the chapter I was going to write, I just felt it better to do it that way overall, so here's the adaptation of episode eight for you all.**

Inside the racer command ship, Pivillinous Cenoric entered the viewing room to find Hexagon stood looking out to the planet below, his fists clenched and a certain angry aura seemed to radiate from the Team Leader as he stood there.

"You're still angry about that red ranger defeating you, correct?" Pivillinous deduced as he sat down in his chair in the middle of the room.

Hexagon gave off a small growl as he began pacing back and forth in the room. "Next time I see that ranger, I'm gonna make him wish he never met me." The vicious brute of a Team Leader declared as the Racer Leader smirked in amusement.

"I imagine you will, but in the meantime, I'm bored. Send out one of your many crazies to entertain me, perhaps Bikerman. Ever since the dreadful show that inspired him was beat by that unsettling Gorilla and his dancing tutorials, he's been causing problems for everyone, it should be fun to watch him." Pivillinous suggested, prompting the brute of a leader to stop pacing and turn to face his boss.

"He's been giving me a headache with that horn for so long now! I really wish you didn't force these misfits onto my team like this all the time. But if he gives those rangers some trouble instead of me, I'm all for it!" Hexagon chuckled, his mood temporarily changing as he began his latest plan to destroy the rangers.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

The sprawling streets of LA were crowded today as the midday lunch rush came into play. Walking along the streets was none other than Darren Buckler, currently in the company of another young man, who appeared to be a couple of years older than the yellow ranger. He had short spiked black hair with a slightly tanned complexion He wore an anarchy shirt underneath a black leather jacket, to complete the appearance was a pair of worn dark jeans and a pair of rocker boots. Over his eyes he wore a pair of dark shades to conceal his eyes and he appeared to hold the lead of a golden retriever walking along just in front of the two.

"So Tom, I heard you're wanting to go into the music business more than ever now, I guess it must be tougher for you than most given your condition." Darren said to the young adult known as Tom walking beside him.

"Yeah, I really loved playing the guitar back in high school, and I even got into the band too, I thought we we're gonna go places with it. Then one jealous idiot plays a prank on you and the next thing you know everyone's forgotten about you and you're just another blind person to them. It's why I stopped playing for a while you know, but thanks to you and Jane sticking by me when all that happened, I realised I shouldn't let that get me down. I'll get any recognition, but it doesn't matter if it's something I love doing." Tom replied to Darren, explaining his reasoning for his choice despite being blind due to past events.

"Well I wish you luck man, but I heard from Jane you had a demo, you mind if I listen to it?" He asked, wanting to see for himself what his friend was able to do.

"Sure, here you go." Tom responded, handing him the tape on a small playback device.

Darren plugged in his headset he still had wrapped around his neck from his last gaming session earlier this morning before giving his friend a skeptical look. "Really, you're still using this old device? It's 2020 man, you've really gotta get with the times." The yellow ranger joked, getting a smirk out of Tom.

Just before he placed the headset over his head, the yellow ranger's Primer sounded off, prompting the ranger to run off, a lapse in his judgement as he forgot to tell his blind friend he had to leave in such a rush.

"Darren? Did you go somewhere? Darren?" Tom asked as he looked from side to side with his arms out to try and find him in a futile gesture, just before the guide dog aiding Tom in his outside travels set off after the yellow ranger, prompting Tom to run too, trying to keep up with the guide dog and yellow ranger, not knowing where he might end up. "Rudy, what's got you so excited?" He asked in a slightly louder than normal voice as he was pulled along by the dog named Rudy.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

Touching down onto the ground and speeding through the city of Los Angeles with immense speed, the latest player of Team Fight had begun the next game. Finally skidding to a stop, the racer player turned to face a small crowd of startled civilians. This alien seemed to have an armored body, being primarily pink with a purple upper torso and a sort of skeletal design over its body highlighted in white. It appeared to have a short and stubby motorbike wrapped around its shoulders and sported a large horn shaped like that of a tuba protruding from it's right side. For the head of the racer, it appeared to be the fuel tank of a bike with wing mirrors taking the shape of what would be eyes.

"Yeah! Bikerman's ready to roll, all you criminals are going down! Get ready to face the power of the Biker-Force evildoers!" The self proclaimed 'hero' Bikerman announced.

Turning so that his large shoulder mounted horn faced the group of people in the immediate area, he let out a blaring sound wave that hit into the civilians, whipping them up into some kind of violent frenzy. With dark circles now around their eyes, the numerous people began assaulting each other violently as a result of the device the evil player referred to as the 'Biker-Force.'

Smashing cars, other motor vehicles and any other property the frenzied people could see, Bikerman gave out a laugh. "Looks like you villain's are really asking for it now. I just can't wait to round you all up!" The real villain exclaimed as he jumped into the fight himself.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

Back within the racer command ship, Hexagon clamped his fists together and was left with an open mouth at how effective Bikerman actually was. "He's actually useful, and quite powerful in a fight too. I'm surprised. I thought you just stuck me with him because he was delusional, thinking he's that hero all the time. You already knew about all this though, didn't you boss?"

From his seat Pivillinous gave a smirk. "I'm always on the lookout for new entertainment. His ideals were twisted and his acting is still bad, and those rangers might just tear each other apart if he does his job right."

Fuze, who was stood next to his brute of an equal turned and looked at the leader of their group, I must have been the first time that he had ever seen Pivillinous contribute to the game, and the robotic Team Leader had to admit, even he was impressed.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

Not too long after Bikerman's twisted fantasy had begun, Darren had arrived on scene, his headset was currently over his ears and he was listening to his friend's composition as he looked around to see the frenzied civilians fighting each other brutally in the area they were currently in.

"What's going on?" Darren asked as Rudy the guide dog and Tom ran up just behind the yellow ranger.

"Darren what's going on?" His blind friend asked as Bikerman turned his attention on the new arrivals.

"More villains? Looks like you all just got backup, not that it's gonna help you against my Biker-Force!" The racer caller out as he turned the Biker-Force to face the two new arrivals and let out another blaring wave of sound that hit Darren, Tom and Rudy. losing his grip on the harness of the dog, Rudy ran off in a whimper due to the differing effect it had on the dog, while Tom plugged his ears with his fingers, trying to block out the sound which seemed to affect him slightly more due to his condition.

Unsurprisingly, Darren was unaffected due to the headgear he wore being a noise cancelling headset, coupled with the music playing, it seemed to make the yellow ranger invulnerable to this Biker-Force attack.

"What is this? You're not going crazy like your criminal friend. I'll fix that soon enough scumbag!" Bikerman blurted out.

Darren then felt a hand grasp his shoulder, turning his head, he saw it was Tom, indeed he had become affected by the device like the others and proceeded to knock Darren down with a punch to the face. The yellow ranger wrestled with his friend, trying to keep him from hurting himself like others had, but it was a tough job with a racer that could also jump into the fight at any second.

As Bikerman prepared another blast of Biker-Force, the other four Primal Protectors arrived on scene, morphed and ready for battle, but not ready for what Bikerman had in store.

"Hey everyone, cover your ears now!" Darren called out to the rangers who gave a shrug and did so just before the sound wave hit them. Surprisingly the method worked, for the most part.

Just as the rangers thought that the worst was over, Nel began acting out like the rest of the civilians and Tom had. Flailing her arms around she gained the attention of the other rangers as they began to lower their hands from their ears, then she proceeded to deliver a powerful left hook to Demetri's head, causing him to stumble away.

While Darren grappled with his friend he turned to his teammates to explain the situation. "When this guy uses that horn on people, it makes them go crazy, I don't really get why Nel was affected too though."

"Somehow she must have heard it, even when she covered her ears." Kyle deduced as he struggled against the frenzied blue ranger before being thrown to the ground into Demetri.

As the other rangers tried to fend off Nel, Bikerman turned so his horn pointed straight at them. "You'll face justice soon enough villains, taste the power of the Biker-Force!" The racer exclaimed as he let out another powerful sonic blast.

Taking his chances, the green ranger pulled out his Pixelator in blaster mode and shot at the horn on the shoulder of the player. Yet it collided with the sound wave and was knocked far off course, the rangers put their hands to their ears quickly just before the wave hit them.

"We can't keep fighting like this!" Val groaned over the loud sound emanating from the horn.

As the sound stopped Nel drew her Pixelator in blade mode cutting down Demetri and Val who had been holding onto her until the last wave of sound hit. Back where Darren was holding his friend, the yellow ranger was taken by surprise as he was knocked off by Tom before the frenzied young man landed a heavy blow to his friend's face, knocking him to the ground.

"Guess there's only one thing to do. The gallant knight has to slay the beast to break the curse!" He exclaimed, placing it into the logic of a role-player. Pulling out his primer, he keyed in his number before closing it up and twisting it to complete the animal insignia. "Three, Lion!" The morpher confirmed as Darren held it out. "Primordial Power, Awaken!"

A stream of yellow pixels overlaid his body before dispersing and leaving him morphed, ready to fight the racer's latest player.

Charging forward, Darren pulled out his Pixelator in blade mode. As he did so, Bikerman sent out another sound wave, temporarily causing the other rangers to cover their ears. Darren charged through it however and leapt up before striking down with both his foot and his Pixelator blade.

Bikerman narrowly blocked the attack with his crude nail baseball bat before bringing it around for a swing that the yellow ranger effortlessly dodged by ducking under the attack. With each slow but powerful swing, Darren used his enhanced agility to dodge the attack before the two locked their weapons again. Bikerman slammed his large bat on the ground as Darren narrowly rolled away before jumping back slightly, ready to strike Bikerman again.

"You villains might have won today, but Bikerman's gonna be back and stronger than ever, just you wait!" The villainous player declared before teleporting away.

As the racer left, all those around that had been affected returned to normal, as did Tom and Nel, the latter demorphing and collapsing while the red ranger held her back.

Darren demorphed and headed over to Tom. "Hey, are you okay? You didn't seem too good a minute ago." he asked, clasping his friend's shoulder with his hand.

"Huh? Is someone there? Darren? I-I can't hear a thing." Tom replied, it appeared that whatever Bikerman had done had also seemed to have damaged his hearing.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

After the events of their initial fight, the rangers returned to the Arcade, with the afflicted Tom in tow. As the moment, Flynn was running a diagnostic on Penelope's suit, trying to determine why she was affected by the contraption on Bikerman's shoulder. Soon enough, the diagnostics came back and Flynn understood the situation better.

"Looks like your helmet's a bit faulty. There's usually sound dampeners that work in the helmets, just to be on the same side, I suggest you all wear some headphones next time you go into battle. I've got some in the back you can all use." The mentor explained to them, even if the other helmets were fine, it was better to be safe than sorry.

A short while later the rangers emerged with the headphones, also trying them out to see if they would work. Nel gave a sigh as she removed her headphones. "They only work in one ear. There's gotta be something else I can use. I'm not just gonna sit by and know I let that alien beat me."

Flynn thought it over for one moment. "I'm sure there's something else that you can use, we'll sort it out before Bikerman shows up again." He said before turning to Darren. "I'm guessing his sense of hearing was sharpened due to his loss of eyesight, it's probably because of that the sound from that horn managed to deafen him. I don't know if beating him will do anything, but it's the best shot your friend has right now."

"Then let's get him, and this time, I won't hold back at all." Darren declared as the rangers readied themselves to face Bikerman again.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

Bikerman stood atop a pedestrian bridge, overlooking a road, chuckling as he prepared to start the game back up. "All you villains down there are gonna feel my justice!" He called out as he looked down.

He pointed the horn at civilians down on the street and was prepared to fire it when the rangers, save Darren rushed onto the scene. "Hey, motormouth, over here!" Demetri called out, prompting Bikerman to turn and face the four rangers.

"This time we've come prepared!" Kyle called out, holding up a pair of headphones, along with the others.

"I'm gonna teach this racer why he should never mess with me!" Nel exclaimed as they all placed the headphones on their head. After that, the blue ranger wrapped a silver scarf tightly around her head to her ears and then then placed a blue motorcycle over her head. "Even if this looks weird, I'll still kick your butt!" Nel declared, while pointing to the side of Bikerman.

"You sure you can see in that?" Kyle asked as he directed her to face where Bikerman actually was.

"I'll be fine, probably." She said as the four of them pulled out the Primers.

"One, Eagle! Two, Shark! Four, Elephant! Five, Tiger! Beasts Ready!" Their morphers called out as they keyed in their animals, proceeding to close it and twist it into position.

"Primordial Powers, Awaken!" The four called, morphing in an instant. Pulling out their Pixelators, the four charged forward as Bikerman began laughing maniacally.

"Like any great hero, I have a power up of my own, the Biker-Force gets stronger than ever today!" Bikerman exclaimed as the horn on his shoulder almost doubled in size and seemed to change to a gold colour.

Turning the horn toward the rangers he let out another blast of sound that shook the red, green and white rangers, while Val seemed unaffected. After a few more seconds, the headphones the rangers were wearing exploded off of their heads and they began to succumb to the frenzying noise.

"Wow, this worked like a charm, gotta hand it to Flynn." The blue ranger said, before hearing the angry grunts of her fellow rangers behind her. Turning to see for herself, she noticed that the headphones were gone and their stances seemed far more barbaric than usual too now. "Wait, you guys, you don't wanna do this." She reasoned.

Stammering about the three of them began striking at each other with their Pixelator blades, cutting each other down and fighting amongst themselves.

The three frenzied rangers fought each other like wild animals as Val tried to get between them and stop them, but was just thrown around and attacked as much as the others were.

Bikerman walked over laughing. "That's why you villains always lose, because you fight each other too much, now all that's left is to make you show your real face, blue." He said as he revved up his engine and prepared to fire out his Biker-Force attack again.

"Over here!" The sound of Darren's voice called, grabbing the attention of Bikerman.

"Easy pickings." Bikerman laughed as he send out a powerful sound wave at the yellow ranger.

"Oh no you don't, that stupid noise cost my friend his hearing and it's not doing anything else, not on my watch!" The ranger yelled, projecting his voice loud enough that it somehow managed to counter Bikerman's attack.

Bikerman was left somewhat awestruck as Darren morphed before him. Letting out a loud roar, whether in anger or to strengthen his own resolve, Darren summoned his Primal Power up and cut through the large horn with his lightning charged claws, shattering it into pieces and knocking Bikerman to the ground.

As the horn was shattered, the three frenzied rangers returned to normal and looked around, rather confused as to what had just happened. Nel pulled off the motorcycle helmet and removed the scarf along with the headphones as she walked up to Darren.

"That's probably the first time your attitude's actually come in handy, just don't go around pretending you're a knight or whatever in future, but, good job today." Nel congratulated, tapping his shoulder lightly with her fist.

Folding his arms, Darren turned to face Bikerman as the racer rose from the ground. "Thanks, but first we've gotta finish this guy off. Everyone." Darren said prompting to the others it was time for action.

"King of the Jungle! Primal Protector Yellow!" Darren called out, starting their roll call off this time.

"Lord of the Skies! Primal Protector Red!" Demetri exclaimed.

"Predator of the Deep! Primal Protector Blue!" Nel Declared.

"Behemoth of the Forest! Primal Protector Green!" Kyle said, giving his arm a pump.

"Stalker of the Blizzard! Primal Protector White!" Val finished off.

"Virtual Players, Real Heroes! Power Rangers, Primal Protectors!" The five called out as they posed heroically.

"Looks like my time's almost up. Quarters, to me!" Bikerman ordered as he flipped some of the coins in the air and summoned a group of the minions.

Leaping into the line of racer footsoldiers, Darren tore through them like a wild lion would do, flipping one of the Quarters over before blocking the weapon of another and then cutting it down and proceeding to do the same to another that was nearby.

Nel rolled on the floor dodging an attack from one of the minions and rising from her roll to block the fists of a Quarter before landing a few blows of her own and twisting the arm of the enemy before finally throwing it to the floor in a spinning motion.

Kyle was surrounded by a small group of the minions as he used his superior strength to hammer them and throw them into each other. A large group was now in front of him, but the green ranger didn't waver and knocked them all out of the way with the strength of his punches, hammering them down one Quarter at a time.

Using her claws, Val cut straight across the body of a Quarter before grappling around its body with her legs and coming up behind it before taking it to the ground. Using her agility the white ranger danced around the attacks of the Quarters and took them down with kicks or knee based attacks as she did so.

Demetri faced down a few of the minions and used a spinning kick to spread them out slightly, doing some damage to those hit, before blocking a few of the attacks. He proceeded to knock two of the minions behind him out with his fists and then used his leg to deal a kick to the first Quarter in front of him and then bringing it around to take out the last of the minions too.

Regrouping, all of the Quarters were now defeated and all that was left was to destroy Bikerman. "I'll have to deal with you villains myself!" He roared in a fit of rage, yet still keeping to his character. The wheels on his feet turned quickly and Bikerman was propelled forward knocking all of the rangers down quickly.

Coming back around, Bikerman began to speed up again. Darren rose up and charged to meet Bikerman head on too. "You're the only villain here Bikerman, and I'm gonna bring you to justice for your crimes!" The yellow ranger declared as he clashed with Bikerman and held on tightly, causing the racer to stop in his tracks.

Spinning him around as the villain tried to rev up and speed off again, Darren gave a kick to the face of the racer startling him momentarily. Kicking him back further, Bikerman was no up against a set of rusty railings. Running and Kicking at the evil player, Darren flipped off of his opponent before landing another powerful kick on the racer. From there, he leapt up into the air and slashed at Bikerman with his lighting powered claws. The injured villain swung his heavy bat at Darren, but the yellow ranger swiftly dodged it and followed it up with a final kick of his own as his teammates grouped around him to finish the fight off.

Kyle, Nel and Val called upon their Primal Power ups as Demetri transformed into his Gorilla ranger form. The green, white and blue rangers lined up and held onto demetri's legs as he jumped on top, with Darren at the side, also ready to contribute to the finishing move.

"Primal Bonds, Kong's Fist!" The four in the pyramid called as the large pixelated fist made of energy materialised and burst forward. At the same time, Darren send out a much larger and powerful arc of lightning from his claws that merged with Kong's Fist, powering up the attack further as it hit Bikerman head on, causing the racer to explode into a mass of pixels.

"Yeah, Bikerman! It was fun while it lasted." Were the last words that Bikerman gave, as if he was somewhat sad with the way his tone of voice was. The rangers were prepared to face another large racer, but were surprised when nothing happened.

"Maybe they got lazy or forgot today." Val suggested.

"Or they're up to something." Kyle added as they wondered what might have been more important than fighting the rangers.

"Well, I guess it's game over." Darren said, content that they had won the day and taken out another adversary.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

A short time later, they returned to the Arcade, where they saw that Tom was sat waiting for Darren.

The yellow ranger walked up to his blind friend before speaking up. "Hey, Tom, you okay?" He asked, hoping that their efforts at destroying Bikerman had restored his friend's hearing.

"Darren? Good, I've been trying to find you all day. I couldn't hear anything until a few minutes ago. Did something happen?" Tom asked, his face looking somewhat relieved now that things were returning to normal.

Darren smirked, happy it hadn't been for nothing. "It's a long story but I'll tell you some time. Aren't you supposed to be going to that audition?"

Tom's facial expression dropped. "I would but it's in twenty minutes and it's on the other side of LA, nothing short of a really fast machine would get us there.

Darren's face lit up as he had a clever grin about him, that was when he pulled out the miniaturized lion zord from his pocket. "I've got just the thing, come on." He said, pulling his friend along with this newfound determination. After today, he felt as if he could take on the whole racer army by himself, not that he would want to. The other rangers laughed as they stood there watching his antics.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

The racer command ship floated in space, further away from the earth than it usually would and an asteroid was coming closer to the ship. It seemed as if it was ready to capture it, for whatever purpose.

Pivillinous sat in his seat in the viewing room, Fuse looked at the monitor that focused on the Asteroid. "What was so important about this that we had a missed opportunity to crush the rangers?" The mechanical Team Leader asked, questioning his leader's motives.

"The origin of this Asteroid is unique, as it is with what I want from it. That's all you need to know, when everything is in place, you'll understand." Pivillinous explained to the general, scarcely revealing any information about his budding plan to Fuse, who was now curious as to what the leader of the racers might have in store once it was ready.

 **|Primal Protectors|**

 **That is chapter 8 everyone. I decided to come do this and take a little break from doing just Mythos for today and did another one of these. The reason I didn't include the Megazord fight was just because I didn't want it to drag any longer and I wanted to add that little extra bit at the end there which would've been part of the originally planned chapter to add some further context to things later in the series. I really enjoyed Bikerman and how his character was a twisted and sadistic 'hero' type character who believed he was doing good when it was just plain evil, so props to Gadget for that one, Bikerman was pretty fun to write in.**

 **I'll be starting back at college next week, but yesterday I went in for some things to be sorted out, so this came out later than planned because of that. Next up we've got the looping episode so stay tuned for that whenever it comes out, until then everyone.**

 **Next Chapter: Edge of Tomorrow**

 **Synopsis: The rangers defeat an already supersized monster and return to enjoy some downtime, but when another racer shows up and the events play out exactly the same, this happening again and again, can the rangers get out of this situation they're in? Find out next time on Power Rangers: Primal Protectors.**


	9. Chapter 9: Edge of Tomorrow

**Primal Protectors**

 **Chapter 9: Edge of Tomorrow**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Power Rangers or the source material for this fic, Doubutsu Sentai Zyouhger or any other things referenced such as certain games.**

 **The characters appearing were made by: AyatoHattori, Dash master 48, KidF1ash, bobmanv2.0, Thewhatzupwriter26 and Me. Gadget The Critic is the man behind the monsters.**

Down the dark concrete hallways of an abandoned factory in the dead of night walked Meizong, in her hands was her signature weapon, a pair of nunchucks with a laser mechanism hidden inside. She gave a sharp and high pitched whistle as she neared a corner.

"Come on you idiot, stop hiding, I can smell you from here you dumb mutt!" The young racer called out, turning to the corner where she gasped at the sight before her. Indeed whatever she had been hunting seemed to have collapsed to the floor, and seemed to be fine. Yet what had caught Meizong off guard was the cause of her furry target's collapse.

Before her stood a nightmarish figure that seemed to be plant-like in appearance. Having a body of dark green, two large pink flowers on the being's chest, some form of wavy pink hair moulded into the head and a pair of glowing yellow eyes with a face like a shrieking banshee. In hand of this nightmare was what appeared to be a watering can.

Meizong was petrified as this horrifying figure came closer to her, humming a haunting tune that the teenage villain found terrifyingly familiar.

The unsettling voice of a woman came from the nightmare of a monster as it stopped in it's tracks. "Take me to your leader."

 **[Primal Protectors]**

"3! 2! 1! Primal Warrior Engage!" Called out the morphers of the yellow, blue and red rangers as their Primal mounts transformed into cubes, stacking on top of each other, the large spike rendering and landing in the gap in the zords, bringing them together before it was removed to be used as a sword.

"Primal Warrior, Player Ready!" The three rangers confirmed from inside their Megazord.

Opposing them was a giant version of the nightmarish monster that had ambushed Meizong not too long ago. While in its right hand was the watering can it had initially carried, the other hand of this nightmare of a plant was an electrical pylon that it had ripped out of the nearby ground.

"Red, yellow and blue. Not that aesthetic is it? I'll _pretty_ it up for you." The nightmare monster said in it's chilling voice, emphasising the word pretty.

Taking the large pylon, the monster threw the large object into the Megazord, tangling it in the electrical wires in the process.

Inside the Megazord cockpit Demetri clutched his control cube tightly. "This thing gives me the creeps so let's take it down fast." He told his other teammates that gave a nod in agreement. Turning his attention to the monster they were facing, the red ranger called out in challenge. "You want aesthetic, we'll give you aesthetic!"

The red ranger gave a spin of his control cube, ordering the Megazord to tear its way out of the pylon trap, freeing itself and causing their opponent to cower, holding its free hand up while using the watering can as some sort of makeshift defence.

Twisting their Primers to complete and light up the collective animal symbol, the rangers placed their morphers into their control cubes. "Sixteen bit Strike!" The three rangers called out as the Primal warrior brought it's sword around in an anti-clockwise motion, the weapon lighting up in the three colours of the rangers as it did so.

Striking with the large blade, the nightmare was hit three times with the attack, causing it to pixelate and fall backwards.

"Sweet dreams rangers!" Were the last haunting words of the nightmare as it exploded and the Megazord turned around.

"Game Over!" The three rangers confirmed as the Primal Warrior lowered it's sword, triumphant.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

After the battle, the five rangers returned to the Arcade to celebrate their latest victory. Small golden particles seemed to fall down from the ceiling nearby one of the old arcade machines as the five rangers entered their headquarters.

Heading into the back room, Val, Kyle and Darren slumped down on the old but still comfortable couch in the middle of the room. The latter two picking up console controllers.

As the green and yellow rangers carried on their playthrough of a game recently released, the white ranger's stomach grumbled. Demetri gave a laugh. "Sounds like it wasn't just me who worked up an appetite in that last fight. The rest of you hungry?" The red ranger asked, to which his male comrades gave somewhat enthusiastic nods without taking their eyes off the screen.

From nearby, Penelope shook her head. "Sorry guys, not today. I've got something I need to do, and since Flynn isn't here right now, I don't think he'd mind me borrowing his computer." The blue ranger responded, sitting down at their mentor's personal computer.

As soon as the other rangers had gotten up and were ready to leave for lunch, the rangers were stopped in their tracks as Flynn rushed into the back room to call on the rangers. "Looks like there's a racer attack at a power plant not too far from here." He informed them. "Whatever plans you have, put them on hold." He explained as Nel joined with the group.

"That's weird. I'm sure we just took one out." She added, getting a confused look from the other five with her.

"I'm not too sure what you mean there, this' been the first one all week. Just get going for now." Flynn finished. It appeared that somehow, in the minds of the other rangers and Flynn, this previous fight never happened. Dismissing it as a sense of Deja vu, Nel followed the rest of the rangers out to the battle.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

The same golden particles from earlier fell and scattered nearby one of the concrete supports. The five morphed Primal Protectors sprinted onto the familiar scene of the battlefield.

Finally in full view of the once again giant nightmare monster, Nel pointed up to the hulk of a foe, each of the rangers presumably had surprised looks on their faces as they saw the already enlarged foe nearby.

"It's already huge, don't they usually have a plan or something first where they have to be small, or did this creep not get the memo?" Kyle questioned as the yellow ranger pumped his arm.

Throwing the aim arm into the air, Darren gave a cheer. "Who cares, we get the boss battle early!"

The nightmare creature tore an electrical pylon out of the ground and began waving it around, while the rangers braced themselves in case they had been spotted. Safe for the moment, the rangers stood tall again, with Darren, Nel and Demetri pulling out their miniaturised Primal Mounts.

Nel studied the Primal Shark zord she held and saw the it had an odd faint glow about it, but the blue ranger couldn't understand any reason for this and was prompted by her teammates to carry on not a second later.

"Primal Mounts, Awaken!" Called the synthetic voice of their morphers as the three rangers lifted their miniature zords high. The Primal Mounts then flew out of the hands of the three rangers, gaining a pixelated aura about them as they expanded to their usual size.

From his cockpit, Demetri keyed in the combination code for the Primal Warrior. "3! 2! 1! Primal Warrior Engage!" Called out the morphers of the yellow, blue and red rangers as their Primal mounts transformed into cubes, stacking on top of each other, the large spike rendering and landing in the circular gap within the zords, bringing them together before turning to reveal the head. The spike then withdrew itself from the Megazord, becoming it's sword.

"Primal Warrior, Player Ready!" The three rangers confirmed from inside their Megazord.

Opposing them yet again was the giant nightmarish monster that seemingly only just defeated, yet almost all of them having no recollection of it. Yet again, in its right hand was the watering can it had carried before, and in the other hand was the very same electrical pylon that the rangers had just seen be ripped from the ground.

"Red, yellow and blue. Not that aesthetic is it? I'll _pretty_ it up for you." The nightmare monster said in it's chilling voice, emphasising the word pretty.

Taking the large pylon, the monster threw the large electrical structure into the Megazord, tangling it in the electrical wires in the process.

Inside the Megazord cockpit Demetri clutched his control cube tightly. "This thing gives me the creeps so let's take it down fast." He told his other teammates that gave a nod in agreement. Turning his attention to the monster they were facing, the red ranger called out in challenge for the second time today. "You want aesthetic, we'll give you aesthetic!"

The red ranger gave a spin of his control cube, ordering the Megazord to tear its way out of the pylon trap, freeing itself and causing their opponent to cower, holding its free hand up while using the watering can as some sort of makeshift shield to defend itself with, not that it would do it much good, like last time.

The three rangers in the cockpit then twisted their Primers to complete and light up the symbol of their collective animals, the rangers placed their morphers into their control cubes. "Sixteen bit Strike!" The three rangers called out as the Primal warrior brought it's sword around as before in an anti-clockwise motion, the weapon lighting up in the three colours of the rangers as it did so.

Striking with the large blade, the nightmare was hit with three diagonal slashes that made up the attack, causing this monster to pixelate and fall backwards.

"Sweet dreams rangers!" Were the repeated haunting last words of the nightmare as it exploded and the Megazord turned around.

"Game Over!" The three rangers confirmed as the Primal Warrior lowered it's sword, triumphant for the second time against the exact same monster today.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

After having succeeded in the repeated battle, the five rangers returned to the Arcade to celebrate their latest victory. As with before, small golden particles seemed to fall down from the ceiling nearby one of the old arcade machines as the five rangers entered their headquarters.

Heading into the back room, Val, Kyle and Darren slumped down on the old but still comfortable couch in the middle of the room again, not noticing the familiarity with the action. The latter two picking up console controllers to continue playing their game.

As if on queue, the white ranger's stomach grumbled. Demetri gave a laugh, repeating the words he had said before. "Sounds like it wasn't just me who worked up an appetite in that last fight. The rest of you hungry?" The red ranger asked, to which his male comrades gave somewhat enthusiastic nods without taking their eyes off the screen, carrying out what would feel like a rehearsal of the same scene to any aware parties, yet again.

From nearby, Penelope shook her head. "Sorry guys, not today. I've got something I need to do, and since Flynn isn't here right now, I don't think he'd mind me borrowing his computer." The blue ranger responded, sitting down at their mentor's personal computer and opening up an email account on the machine, where she began typing into a blank email message, starting with 'Mom and Dad'

 **[Primal Protectors]**

From inside the racer command ship, Fuse scratched his chin thoughtfully as the rest of them watched the events unfolding on screen. Pivillinous rested his head on his right arm as he spoke to the other two Team Leaders about what had led up to these events.

"A few days ago, I sent Meizong out to procure a special specimen for me. Nothing to concern yourselves with for now however. There she was ambushed by the nightmare she returned with. This 'Poison Queen Barley' as she introduced herself felt like something right out a nightmare. I found her unsettling, yet she promised to take care of the thorn in our sides." Pivillinous explained, giving some context to the events that had led up to this.

Fuse lowered his hand from his face and looked at the leader of the Racers. "So what does this Poison Queen want, and now the rangers are down, what's happening now?"

Pivillinous smirked. "While it is unsettling to think about what this living nightmare intends, it won't be a problem much longer, when this world is destroyed. With the rangers trapped in an unending nightmare, I gave her a seed from the Terror Blossom. I imagine you understand."

Fuse stammered for a second. "Y-Yes. It's a smart move, sir." The mechanical Team Leader nodded as the viewing screen showed the five rangers collapsed on the ground, every now and again speaking a word from their predestined lines. Yet the blue ranger seemed to have a hold of her Primal Shark in one of her hands as she lay there, it appeared to give off the same glow as before.

From the interior of a currently abandoned factory, Poison Queen Barely cackled as she watered the large and pulsing dark bulb of the Terror Blossom. When the nightmare personified wasn't letting out unsettling laughs, she was humming a chilling tune.

"Soon you'll be big and strong, enough to devour the whole world and leave it with nightmares, spreading your roots everywhere, until there's nothing more to consume and you become a huge deathly flower, nothing escaping your reach!" Poison Queen Barley cheered in her spine chilling voice as she kept watering the large bulb with more of whatever concoction was in the watering can.

Returning to the racer command ship, Pivillinous called the names of his two Team Leaders. "Fuse, Hexagon. You've both been rather disappointing in the games this time around. When we're done here, go out on your own, destroy a few worlds. Earn back my confidence in you."

Both of the racers felt a lump in their throats at their leader's orders. "Yes sir." Fuse replied. "Alright boss, was starting to feel rusty just attacking earth anyway." Hexagon responded in turn, also agreeing.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

From where the blue ranger was writing her email, another set of golden particles fell down near to her as another sound penetrated the dream illusion the five of them were in.

"Huh, did one of you say something?" Penelope asked, turning around in the chair to look at the others.

The others gave shrugs as they carried on with what they had been doing. "We didn't hear anything, you're sure you weren't imagining it?" Demetri suggested, to which Nel gave a firm shake of her head.

"No, it was as clear as day, like an animal calling out for help." The blue ranger replied as Flynn entered the room.

"You guys can rest later, looks like there's a racer attack at a power plant not too far from here. You guys better get moving." Flynn told the five of them, his lines modified from before.

The four rangers aside from Nel jumped up and rushed off while the blue ranger stood there thinking. 'Why's this seem so familiar?' before Flynn cleared his throat, prompting her to go along with the others.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

As with the previous two times, golden particles fell and scattered nearby one of the concrete supports. The five morphed Primal Protectors sprinted onto the exact same battlefield as the previous few times to face off against the enlarged Poison Queen Barley.

Finally in full view of the nightmare monster, Nel played out her part and pointed up to the hulk of a foe, each of the rangers presumably had surprised looks on their faces once more as they saw their nearby enemy.

"It's already huge, don't they usually have a plan or something first where they have to be small, or did this creep not get the memo?" Kyle wondered, repeating his lines, which caught the attention of the blue ranger, as the yellow ranger pumped his arm.

Throwing the aim arm into the air, Darren gave a cheer. "Who cares, we get the boss battle early!"

The nightmare creature tore an electrical pylon out of the ground and began waving it around, which Nel found familiarity in. She placed her hand on the lower half of her helmet. "Wait a minute, I've heard that before." She mumbled to herself as Darren stepped up.

"Let's do this already!" He called out, prompting Demetri and Nel to draw their miniature Primal Mounts, it appeared as if Penelope's zord glew slightly brighter than it had last time for a moment until the rangers raised them to the sky, where they flew up and rendered into their full size.

From his cockpit, Demetri keyed in the combination code for the Primal Warrior. "3! 2! 1! Primal Warrior Engage!" Called out the morphers of the yellow, blue and red rangers as their Primal mounts transformed into cubes, stacking on top of each other, the large spike rendering and landing in the circular gap within the zords, bringing them together before turning to reveal the head. The spike then withdrew itself from the Megazord, becoming it's sword.

"Primal Warrior, Player Ready!" The three rangers yet again confirmed from inside their Megazord.

"Red, yellow and blue. Not that aesthetic is it? I'll _pretty_ it up for you." Poison Queen Barley repeated in her chilling voice.

Taking the large pylon, the nightmare incarnate threw the large electrical structure into the Megazord, tangling it in the electrical wires in the process. As it struck and the rangers recoiled from it, Nel shook her head.

"There's something going on here, I remember those exact same words, everything feels the same too, like we've been going through the same round of a fighting game, over and over again, without beating it." She explained to the other two rangers inside the Megazord with her.

From the ground, Val folded her arms and tilted her head, wondering what exactly could be going on here. While beside her, Kyle waved his arms around in protest to the sudden stop in his team's efforts to defeat the Poison Queen.

"Save whatever you're going on about till after we've beat this freak!" The green ranger called up to his teammates in the Megazord.

Poison Queen Barely let out another one of her spine tingling hums as she plotted to end the rangers It made the three rangers piloting the zord turn their attention to their foe where Demetri and Darren both had the same feeling of Deja vu the Nel initially had.

Inside the Megazord cockpit Demetri clutched his control cube tightly. "This thing gives me the creeps so let's take it down fast." He commanded. "You want aesthetic, we'll give you aesthetic!" The red ranger called out to the nightmare before them, giving a spin of his control cube and ordering yet again for the Megazord to tear its way out of the pylon trap. "Wait a minute. I'm sure I said that before. And when we beat her, she calls out as she explodes."

"Sweet dreams rangers!" Both Demetri and Nel exclaimed at the same time.

Darren was left confused at their synchronization in those words. "Really? Damn this is weird, like that time when-" Darren was about to go off on a speech when Kyle interrupted him.

"Just get on with it already!" The green ranger yelled from the ground.

"Alright, let's finish him off and we can fix this after." Demetri said, acknowledging his comrade's impatience.

The three rangers in the cockpit then twisted their Primers to complete and light up the symbol of their collective animals, they proceeded and placed their morphers into the control cubes of the Megazord. "Sixteen bit Strike!" The three rangers called out as the Primal warrior brought it's sword around as it had done the previous two times in an anti-clockwise motion, the weapon lighting up in the three colours of the rangers as it did so.

Striking with the large blade, the nightmare was struck with three diagonal slashes that made up the attack, causing this monster to pixelate and fall backwards.

"Sweet dreams rangers!" Were the haunting last words of the Poison Queen Barley that both Demetri and Penelope had said beforehand as it exploded and the Megazord turned around.

Back inside the cockpit, the rangers were taken by surprise that the words were accurate and the rangers had finally become aware of the real problem they were dealing with.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

The five rangers, now in their civilian outfits, regrouped where they had arrived originally as another stream of the golden particles fell nearby.

"So, this thing's all some kind of repeating dream, right?" Darren asked as they all thought hard to try and remember the events of the actual day.

Demetri turned his attention to Nel for a moment. "I remember that you were on Flynn's computer, writing up an email. Something about an anniversary, right?"

Nel thought on it for a moment, her face lighting up when she remembered. "Yeah, My mom and dad are always busy working. There's a small timeframe each month when I can talk to them, but they prefer it by email. I've not seen them in a while and since tomorrow is their anniversary, I'm looking forward to seeing them come home, like they usually do. I was writing an email this morning to see when they were coming and that's when there was a racer attack."

"Alright, since you're smart enough to notice we're in some kind of repeating shared dream, mind telling us how we're gonna get out?" Kyle asked, getting a shake from the head of the blue ranger. "Typical, you get us to the point where we know something's up, but you don't know how to fix it. It'll be a waste if we forget all this as soon as it resets."

For criticising the blue ranger, Kyle was delivered a swift punch in the face, which appeared to knock him out. From there, his body just vanished. "There, problem solved. And looks like we know how to get out of this now. Everyone?" She looked at them, while holding up her fist, getting uneasy looks from the other rangers.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

First to awake from the dream was Kyle, followed by Darren, Val, Demetri and finally Nel herself woke up. Rising from the hard concrete floor, each of them were acting like typical teenagers that had to get up early.

Slowly the five of them began to piece together the events in full. "So we fought this crazy flower thing with a watering can and when we had her cornered, she shot out some kind of spores that made us go into this sleep." Val said, finalising their account of what had happened after leaving the Arcade and prior to their sleep.

"But knocking us out was probably just to get us out of the way, but whatever this thing is doing can't be good if it wanted to stop us first. We need to find where it's hiding now." Nel replied, suggesting they search for the Poison Queen. As she said so, her miniaturized shark zord flew out of one of her pockets. It now glew brightly with a pixelated blue aura before it took off in a seemingly random direction.

"What just happened? Kyle asked, the other rangers also shrugging, not exactly understanding it either.

"I don't know, but if RPG's have taught me one thing, it's to follow the magical flying shark." Darren replied, getting awkward looks off of his teammates. "What?" He asked as the five headed after Nel's Primal Mount, trying to ignore him as best they could.

Within the repurposed factory, Poison Queen Barely watered the Terror Blossom bulb with the dark mixture inside her watering can, cackling and singing creepy songs as she did so. Yet underneath the soil, the cry of an animal came.

Trapped inside the thorny roots of the diabolical plants looked to be an object similar to the giraffe zord in its cubic form, except it appeared to be purple.

"Soon enough Terror Blossom, only a little more to go." Poison Queen Barely said to the monster plant almost ready to spring to life.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

The five Primal Protectors rushed down a set of concrete steps as they came across the bud of the Terror Blossom and Poison Queen Barely feeding it. "Just a few more drops." The living nightmare said to the plant as the rangers realised what she was doing.

"Hey you there, the jig's up!" demetri called out, getting the attention of the Poison Queen.

She let out another unsettling cackle as she turned to see the five rangers. "I agree, it's all over. For you that is."

"We'll see about that, ready?" Nel asked as the five of them drew their Rubik Primers and gave affirmative nods to the blue ranger

"Primordial Powers, Awaken!" The six of them called out as they were overlaid by a stream of coloured pixels, that quickly dispersed, leaving them morphed and ready for a fight.

"If you want a nightmare rangers, I'll give you one!" Poison Queen Barely exclaimed as she fired out two large plumes of the spores that had induced them into the dream previously.

While the other rangers rolled away, Demetri stood his ground, swiping his helmet from bottom to top for a moment. "Primal Power Up, Unleash!" The red ranger called out, summoning the wings of his primal power up and creating a powerful wind force to diffuse the spores around the area and neutralise the threat.

Val, Darren and Kyle drew their Pixelators, converting them to blaster mode as they did, before firing shots at the flowers mounted atop Poison Queen Barely's shoulders, destroying them effectively.

"You might have destroyed my flowers, but an even greater one is ready to bloom, once it devours all life on your world that is." Their nightmare foe informed them, gesturing to the bulging bud.

The rangers were caught off guard as thick vines shot out from the side of the plant, waving around before snaring the five rangers and rendering them unable to fight.

"We'll find a way out of this!" Demetri called out in defiance of the Poison Queen as Nel's Primal shark once again slipped away from it's ranger, now glowing brighter than ever, taking a dive into the ground.

Poison Queen Barely let out another cackle as green electricity surged down the vines, electrocuting the rangers. The bulb glew a bright blue as a mass of the vines fired out and burst from the bulb, making their way to the surface to eat the rest of the world. "It's finally here!" The personified nightmare cheered maliciously.

The Primal shark came closer and closer to the ensnared cube that was crying for help, upon contact, the cube tore it's way through the thorn roots of the Terror blossom, folding itself out to reveal itself to be a mole zord. Drilling it's way up, the mole zord burst out from the concrete floor, landing swiftly where it proceeded to drill straight through and destroy the Terror Blossom. The Primal shark shortly emerged from the same hole of the mole zord, returning to Nel.

Landing back on their feet, the rangers observed the new zord. "That's a new zord? Nice!" Kyle approved giving a thumbs up.

Nel studied her small shark for a moment. "So somehow my zord knew where the mole zord was and tried to lead us to it. I think we're gonna need some answers from Flynn after all this is over."

Demetri gave a nod to the newest zord. "Thanks, I think everyone one earth just about owes you one by now."

As he said so to the zord, Poison Queen Barely jumped down to the ground and began attacking the rangers with her watering can. Demetri rolled out of the way of her first attack as the others swung with their fists and claws, narrowly missing their foe. As she readied another attack against the rangers, Demetri grabbed her watering can and held her in place, before hitting her and knocking the nightmare away.

"Let's fight harder this time!" The red ranger called to his other teammates as he pulled his mask on his helmet up, transforming into his Primal Gorilla form. "Morphosis!" The ranger called out as he did so.

"Primal Power Ups, Unleash!" The other four rangers called out, donning their individual power ups too.

Leaping off of the side of a concrete beam, Darren slashed downwards with his claws, sending a surge of lightning into the Poison Queen, before he rolled away.

With the nightmare now trapped in a corner, Val leapt at the foe, striking her with her own set of claws, giving the Poison Queen a taste of the icy power that the ranger had.

Retreating around a beam and avoiding one last attack from the white ranger, Barely was now facing up against Kyle. The green ranger brought his fist around to hit his opponent, yet the Poison Queen dodged his initial attack. Turning around though, Kyle slammed hard on the ground with his feet, causing a quake that sent the monster flying back, hitting the ground.

Poison Queen Barely looked at the ceiling, where she was caught by surprise as Demetri came down, bringing his fists around to hit her. Though she rolled away at the last second, Demetri bent over as a support as Nel charged forward, pushing with her hands off of the red ranger's back and delivering a heavy kick to the Poison Queen.

Gathering up, the rangers formed a pyramid. "Primal Bonds, Kong's Fist!" The five of them called out as the large red fist formed of pixels and energy materialised before them and fired forward, landing a direct hit on Poison Queen Barely, who was destroyed in a fiery explosion.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

Within the racer command ship, the four villains were mesmerised by what had just happened. Pivillinous drew a silver coin from his seat. "I understand that she wasn't a racer and we don't have her on record to supersize her. But I want to see this show go on a little longer and there are other, older ways, to bring about a giant monster. Meizong, take this coin, place it into her remains, and see what happens." The racer leader ordered as the coin flashed, transforming into a gold coin with a red pattern in the centre.

Mezong gave a grumble as she took the coin from her uncle and headed to the centre of the room, where she teleported away in a stack of coins.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

As the rangers waited for the usual way of the reanimation of a monster, they were taken off guard as a stack of the the green teleport coins landed and dispersed, revealing Meizong, who walked over to the remains of the Poison Queen. She quickly jumped away, looking at the remains.

"There, I helped you, now stop creeping me out." Meizong told the remains as she teleported away once more.

The five rangers were stunned by the sudden appearance of a racer they hadn't seen before. "Who the hell was that?" Kyle asked, knowing it was what everyone else was wondering too.

"I don't know, but she seems like bad news." Demetri replied. After he finished his sentence, Poison Queen Barely reanimated into a hulking giant, returning in an explosive mass of pixels.

"Speaking of trouble" Nel commented as she, Darren and Demetri drew their Primal mounts and raised them up.

"Primal Mounts, Awaken!" Called the synthetic voice of the morpher as the shark, lion and gorilla rendered to their usual sizes and the rangers jumped into the cockpits of their individual zords. "3! 2! 6! Primal Sharpshooter, Engage!" The automated voice declared as the cubes landed atop each other before locking together and forming the Primal Sharpshooter.

"Primal Sharpshooter, Player Ready!" The three rangers confirmed as the Megazord aimed it's Primal rifle at Poison Queen Barely.

Clashing it's rifle against their foe's watering can, the Megazord was knocked back slightly as she forced her watering can forward. While it was temporarily stunned, the Poison Queen attacked the body of the Megazord, knocking it back further.

Before she could do anything more, however. The Megazord aimed with the Primal rifle and fired rapidly at Poison Queen Barely, causing quite a bit of damage. When it stopped, their opponent cackled as she began watering the ground around her with a green liquid, creating a giant plant pot defence around herself.

The rangers used their rocket punch finisher attack multiple times to try and break this new defence, but it was to no avail as the plant pot raised to defend Poison Queen Barely. As they tried to think up of a new plan of attack, the mole zord they had just acquired leapt onto the battlefield, rolling out and transforming into some form of a drill weapon.

"Oh I get it, the mole zord wants us to use it to break through the plant pot." Darren deduced as the Primal Sharpshooter switched out it's rifle for the mole zord drill.

"Alright mole zord, let's take this nightmare out together!" Demetri cheered as they twisted their Primers to complete and light up the symbol of their collective animals, the rangers then placed their morphers into their control cubes, ready to finish the fight with their newly acquired zord.

The Primal Sharpshooter span around, picking up speed, getting faster and faster, until coming to an abrupt stop, where all the picked up speed transferred to the drill on the mole.

"High Res, Drill Destruction!" The three of them called out as the drill mowed through the plant pot and straight through Poison Queen Barely too.

"I'll haunt you in your dreams rangers, mark my words!" The fallen Poison Queen shrieked as she exploded into a mass of pixels.

"Game Over!" The three rangers confirmed as the Primal Sharpshooter levelled it's drill, triumphant.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

After the battle, the rangers returned to the Arcade. Unfortunately, there was no sign of Flynn and it looked as if they weren't going to get any answers about some of the unexpected events of the day.

As the other rangers went about their usual post fight, Business, Nel was on her own and looked rather down. She had just finished talking one the phone with someone. As Demetri walked over, he noticed her glum look.

"Hey, is everything alright? You look kinda down." The red ranger observed, taking a seat next to her.

"My parents just called, they said there was some problem with trade deals and they'd be spending the next week sorting it all out. I was looking forward to seeing them again, but apparently work is more important than family to them." Penelope sighed as she looked down fumbling with her hands.

"Listen, when it comes to family, you can't just wait for them to be free for a visit or whatever, you've gotta make time, because when it comes to family, especially parents, you've only got one to make it count with. Even those closest to you don't share a bond like real family do. So you've gotta stand up and make time with them. They might have busy careers, but you should be a priority. They need to know to make time for you too." Demetri told Nel, getting her to smile a bit.

"Thanks, you're a good friend. I think I'll take your advice." She replied clasping his shoulder as she stood up and headed to the exit of the Arcade.

 **|Primal Protectors|**

 **That was Chapter 9 and wow was it a long one. If anyone felt this was a long and dragging chapter, I'm sorry about that. But it's mainly due to the repeating dream which was hell on me to write. You'll notice each one is largely similar, but I tried my best to change it up each time. There were a few things I was going to explain at the end of the chapter about their zords and such, but because this is so long and it's just more information, I decided against it and it'll factor into the the next chapter. So I'm hoping this went okay despite the repeating of this chapter which I was against, but this chapter was a necessary one due to the arrival of the mole zord.**

 **This chapter has come out late this week due to the fact I've not been that well at the start of the week and come thursday I'm sick and still am. I'll try get something else out if I can this week, but we'll see. As a last note, I'll be doing a few Primal Protectors chapters in the coming weeks for some much needed catch up, but that doesn't mean I'll neglect the other series' I'm writing. All that said thanks for reading and I'll see you again later, hopefully when I'm no longer sick.**

 **Next Chapter: A Grand Reveal**

 **Synopsis: The rangers are called out to a populated area where they find Meizong lying in wait with a group of Quarters. When defeating the minions, the leader of the racers reveals himself to them, while trapping them in a bubble that contains a bomb. Can the rangers disarm the bomb? What other surprises are lying in wait? Find out next time on Power Rangers: Primal Protectors.**


	10. Chapter 10: A Grand Reveal

**Primal Protectors**

 **Chapter 10: A Grand Reveal**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Power Rangers or the source material for this fic, Doubutsu Sentai Zyouhger or any other things referenced such as certain games.**

 **The characters appearing were made by: AyatoHattori, Dash master 48, KidF1ash, bobmanv2.0, Thewhatzupwriter26 and Me. Gadget The Critic is the man behind the monsters.**

It had only been a few days since the strange goings on during the battle against Poison Queen Barely, now the five rangers were sat in the back room watching the large screen as Flynn explained to them why such things could happen and what he had been hiding from them since they became rangers.

"Alright, you remember the glowing white cubes that I said were your morphers' power source? I kinda lied about that. While they are used to power it, they're actually a complex crystal supercomputer. While I'm saying this I might as well also tell you they're from another planet." He informed them, finally revealing what the crystalline cubes actually were.

"Okay, so if this' alien tech, I'm guessing the casing you put them in lets us use them right?" Kyle asked, getting a quick nod from Flynn.

"So why was my zord acting about, and what about the mole zord we found?" Nel chimed in, bringing Flynn into the next point he was about to make.

"We only just managed to make a machine interface last year, it's taken me this long to fully understand some of the code hidden in the cores. Essentially each of the zords is alive, still a machine, but alive like any other animal might be. They have some sense of friendship like you all have from what I understand and it went after the mole zord to help it."

As the mentor finished, Val cleared her throat, getting the other's attention. "You still didn't explain why the mole zord was there, and the giraffe zord too. Where'd they come from?"

Flynn gave a sigh and placed his hands on his hips as he decided to tell them what else he knew. "Catering to any conspiracist here, they were sent here by the same alien race responsible for the cores centuries ago in asteroids. You've actually seen one before. Everything you're fighting with comes from Zooland, these Zoolanders sent all this here and now it's in your hands."

"You mean the same planet with the dancing Gorilla? If they came up with all this, we're probably doomed." Kyle sighed as Flynn got an alert on his phone, the Racers were back, and anything more he had to tell them would need to wait.

"Looks like everyone's least favourite aliens are back. It looks like they're surrounding a heavily populated area, watch out for civilians." He finished as he watched the rangers run out to deal with whatever threat came next. 'Hopefully I can tell them the rest of the story, before something goes wrong.'

 **[Primal Protectors]**

Within the Racer command ship, the door to the side opened revealing Meizong, who was holding a steel container of some kind. As she headed further into the viewing room, both Fuse and Hexagon caught sight of the container and knew what it meant.

"The-The beacon, it's that time already?" Fuse asked as Meizong headed over giving the container to Pivillinous.

"Cross your wires tin man, this' about to get exciting." Hexagon chuckled as Meizong placed the container on the armrest of the racer leader's seat.

"It should still be working after Hexagon stepped on it last time, but you really need to send someone to clean that repair bay, it smells worse than deck nineteen." The young Racer complained as she glanced over at Fuse, who in turn gave a gulp to express his displeasure.

Pivillinous placed his hand on the top of the container and gave a chuckle. "For once, I think I'll play a game myself, show them how great a leader I truly am, especially with a certain madman as my player." He chuckled as he lifted his hand off of the container, which Meizong opened to reveal a silver capsule sporting a large red button on its surface.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

In an area of the city composed primarily of stone structures, the Quarter footsoldiers of the Racers were attacking civilians mercilessly, dragging them down to the floor and attacking them with their weapons.

As one of the Quarters was about to land a finishing blow on one of the terrified civilians, the red Primal Protector leapt towards it with his blade configured Pixelator, cutting it straight down the chest.

While Demetri did so, the other rangers also joined the battle with their own Pixelators in hand, fighting off the foes that were an immediate threat to any remaining civilians.

Darren was now stood atop a small stone structure fighting off two Quarters at once that stood either side of him. He struck them both diagonally down the chest before diving off of the structure as the Quarters fell off defeated. As he landed, he rolled under the sweeping blow of one of the Quarter's weapons before blocking another of the weapons with his Pixelator.

Closer to a small restaurant with a glass front to it, Nel grasped the neck of a Quarter with help from her sword and lifted herself up to flip over the foe and drop it to the ground as three more of the minions tried to attack her, only to miss.

Val was facing up against three Quarters underneath a sort of shelter in the area. As one came to attack the white ranger, she hopped up onto a small platform in part of the shelter, blocking a Quarter weapon with her Pixelator. From there she rolled along another part of the shelter, dealing two kicks to one of her opponents as she touched down on the ground again before bashing her Pixelator against another Quarter weapon and finishing her foe off with a slash down it's chest.

Just outside the shelter, Kyle slammed a Quarter into the wall before tackling another and throwing it over his shoulders. From the side, one of the Racer minions charged forward to attack him, the green ranger managed to block the blow just in time before proceeding to run at and jump of the wall to deal an downwards slash to the Quarter, finishing it off.

Demetri was now fighting in a similar sheltered area, yet it had large metal columns holding it up. As he blocked one attack from his foes, he ran forward, jumping over the platform with the metal columns with a flip before cutting down the quarter behind him.

"Alright, enough games. Primal Power Ups, Unleash!" The red ranger called as he summoned his wings and the others called upon their own Power Ups.

Flying up high before swooping down and spinning quickly, Demetri was shrouded in a fiery tornado, shredding through a line of Quarters atop one of the buildings. As he did so, Nel spann quickly to become a fast spinning disk of water, striking down a group of Quarters above the first shelter As Val attacked with her winter powered claws and Darren unleashed powerful chains of lightning from his claws. To finish off what was left of the foe, Kyle stomped on the ground hard, causing a minor quake and wiping out the remaining Quarters.

As Demetri landed on the ground by the others, they gave a sigh of relief that another fight was over for now. Or at least they thought it was. On top of a large cube that was part of a building with a pyramid on top of it, Meizong stood.

The five Primal Protectors heard a slow mocking clap coming from that direction and looked up to see the young Racer stood there. "Not bad, but you were a little slow." She said, giving a small yawn.

"It's her from before, but what's she up to?" Kyle asked as they dispelled their Power ups and came closer together, getting more tense by her sudden arrival.

"Whatever it is, she's up to no good." Val added before Meizong spoke up once more.

"My name's Meizong, my uncle sent me down here to make sure you'd all come and play his little game." She introduced herself, explaining her intentions in the process.

"Game? I don't like where this' going." Darren pointed out, being weary of what the Racers were planning today.

Nel planted her fist into her other palm. "Well, whatever it is, I'm not one to back down from a challenge."

"Trust me this game is a challenge, but aside from me having to stay here and provide some support to the game, I'll let my uncle explain it to you." She informed them, gesturing to the pyramid as a large hologram of Pivillinous Cenoric appeared behind it startling the five rangers.

"We finally meet, Power Rangers. I am Pivillinous Cenoric, leader of the Racers, the finest team in the galaxy." He introduced as the five rangers tensed up even more.

'He's their leader? At least we finally know what we're up against.' Demetri thought to himself as the Racer Leader continued.

"Every time you fight one of my players, you always insult me. Today is a matter of pride for myself, but also to test you. So today I invite you all to play a very special game." He explained, snapping his fingers and causing a large energy dome to materialise over a large portion of the city.

"I'm not one to shy away from a challenge, but I don't like where this' going." Nel added as Pivillinous let out an unsettling laugh.

Meizong began to laugh hysterically. "The forcefield is here to keep you from getting away. Inside the dome is a bomb that will kill everyone inside if it goes off, your time to stop it is getting shorter and shorter. If you want to stop it then find the bomb and press the big red button on it." She said as a hologram of the silver capsule from before appeared above her hand.

"If you beat the game, I have a special surprise waiting for you." Pivlillinous added.

"Stop screwing with us, we don't play to entertain you, no matter what you promise!" Demetri called out to the large hologram.

Once again he laughed in amusement. "Don't you see red ranger? Of course you play to entertain me, if you didn't put up a fight this entertaining, I would've destroyed your planet from the start." He finished as the hologram faded with the sound of maniacal chuckling coming from him before it shut off completely.

"There you go, get finding that bomb now, the clock's ticking." She said to the rangers.

"Wait you're staying here too? Thought you'd run off by now." Darren asked Meizong who smirked.

"I'm not too happy about being blown up, but he always makes up for getting me into these situations, either way it turns out." She replied calmly.

Demetri turned around and looked at the others. "Come on, we have to find this bomb and stop it, otherwise this whole place goes boom." As he finished, they all nodded and set off into different directions to find the bomb before it was too late.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

The rangers began searching throughout the wide city area they were now trapped in, due to some interference from the dome around them, they couldn't contact Flynn for help. Searching high and low, the rangers either found nothing or objects that appeared to be the bomb capsule at first glance, but were just ordinary objects.

Finally, the rangers regrouped on a walkway near a building where Kyle thought he had found the object, only for it to be some sort of gardening tool.

"This' hopeless. We'll not find it, I'm not surprised really, we've got this far on sheer luck and now we're faced with a real challenge that we've got no chance of winning." He grimaced as the others gathered around.

"We can't be thinking negative here, every Racer we fought was picked to try and finish us off, the fact we keep beating them's gotta count for something." Demetri said, disagreeing with the green ranger.

"Well it isn't like we can trust all that now. We're ordinary people, we can hardly do anything that we can when we're morphed. From what Flynn says about it being alien tech, we can't even trust that now either. If we're supposed to beat this challenge with our heads, good luck with that." Darren replied as both he and Kyle walked off.

Nel looked at Val and Demetri for a moment. "I'll see what I can do about those two, get searching in the meantime." She told them as she left to fix the problem at hand with the other two rangers.

After the small row, the white and red rangers were now at an overlook in the city looking out to see if there was any sign of the bomb.

"What do you think, do we even have a chance now to beat this Pivillinous? The Kyle and Darren don't think so, and they're kinda right in their arguments now I think about it." Demetri asked Val as they leant forward on a railing.

"I don't care about the odds to be honest, if we're getting results then that's enough for me. Flynn didn't tell us the whole truth though, that's what's got them on edge, now they aren't confident with using our ranger powers and it's gonna be hard adjusting to the reality it's alien tech." She explained to him.

"You sound like you know what you're talking about." Demetri replied, before either of them could say anything else however, the red ranger winced in pain and shut his eyes tightly. "My eyes, they feel like they're on fire." He told Val as he opened them with a grunt. To his surprise, his perception of everything before him was enhanced as he looked around. Though it hadn't occurred to him, the pain was now gone as he viewed the world with much more focus before placing his eyes on a tower where he spotted the bomb capsule.

"Hey, is everything okay?" Val asked holding him steady as she did so.

"I don't know what happened, but I saw the bomb, it's up on that tower." He informed her, pointing to a cubic tower with extending platforms at the top which the silver capsule was attached to.

"The others went down there when we split up, they're closest, let's try get in contact with them." Val suggested.

Demetri was about to shout when he realised that it was too great a distance to shout over. "How're we gonna tell them from all the way over here.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Val quickly drew her Rubik Primer and flipped it open, pressing down on the communications button. "Hey, Nel. We've found the bomb, it's on a tower nearby, looks like a cube with some platforms at the top, the bomb's stuck to the underside of one of those platforms.

The other three rangers were sat on a set of steps outside an office building when they got the call from Val. Shutting her Primer and putting it away, the blue ranger scanned the area in front of her until she saw the tower containing the bomb. "It's up there! Darren, you think you can get it down?" She asked, pointing it out for the yellow ranger.

"I'm no crack shot, but even I can't miss that one. Kyle, get ready to catch it." He responded while drawing his Pixelator as Kyle stood up.

"Just try not to blow us up, I like living." Kyle replied as his teammate gave a smirk.

Taking aim, Darren fired off a few shots that hit the capsule, sending it hurtling down to the ground. As he did so, Kyle dashed forward, just managing to catch the capsule before it hit the ground. Pressing down on the large red button the three gave a sigh of relief.

As Val and Demetri regrouped with the others, they looked up to see that the large dome around them slowly dissolved into the air. As they celebrated their victory over the challenge Pivillinous hat set for them, the red button on the capsule glew brightly.

From the sky, a metallic object began falling, coming closer and getting bigger as it descended. With a heavy thud, the metallic object slammed into the ground, crushing the capsule under a large metal foot. The rangers turned around quickly to see a large and bulky machine stood before them.

The rangers' eyes widened as a red laser beam shot out from one of the mechanical arms. "What is that thing?" Kyle asked as the five of them scrambled to their feet, seeing the ground it had hit with a large area blasted away.

From the foe they were now facing, a voice came, sounding like it came from a radio of sorts. "They call me Tophats, and you're up against my super destructive Power Armour." The voice introduced himself, he sounded like a kid, an unusual foe to go up against.

From nearby, on top of one of the buildings, a laugh came, turning, they saw Meizong stood there watching. "Good job getting the bomb stopped, at least I don't have to get blown up today. This is Tophats, some genius kid in power armour my uncle and Fuse bought a while ago. That button you pressed stopped the bomb and activated a homing beacon for him to follow, the only real way we can get him down here to destroy your world really. He's also the prize my uncle promised you for beating his challenge, enjoy playing you lot." She finished as Tophats began to move again.

"Then all this was just some ploy to get us to fight another Player." Kyle realised as they braced themselves to fight Tophats.

"We should've known this' what he wanted to happen, guess all we can do now though is fight him and beat him like the rest of the Racers we've come up against." Demetri said as they stood firm.

Now facing Tophats, the five rangers drew their Rubik Primers and keyed in their numbers before bringing them around and twisting them to complete the animal symbol. "Primordial Powers, Unleash!" The five called out as they morphed in a stream of coloured pixels.

"Lord of the Skies! Primal Protector Red!" Demetri began.

"Predator of the Deep! Primal Protector Blue!" Nel called out, following on.

"King of the Jungle! Primal Protector Yellow!" Darren exclaimed, letting out a roar.

"Behemoth of the Forest! Primal Protector Green!" Kyle announced while pumping his arm.

"Stalker of the Blizzard! Primal Protector White!" Valerie finished off.

"Virtual Players, Real Heroes! Power Rangers, Primal Protectors!" The rangers called out in unison.

Wiping his helmet from bottom to top, Demetri took a breath in. "Now you're messing with pros!" The red ranger called out as the rangers drew their Pixelators in blade mode.

"Do you really want to face me and my invincible machine of doom so badly? Well it's your funeral, come at me!" Tophats challenged from within his heavily protected suit of armour as the five rangers charged toward him.

As Tophats fired off a round of explosive energy projectiles, the five rangers jumped into the air, cutting down the ones they could while dodging the numerous ones they couldn't stop. Charging forward as the barrage ended and leaping into the air, Demetri proceeded to hit Tophats with a downwards slash, only for his opponent to side step before it hit, causing the red ranger to clash with the ground instead.

"You'll have to be faster than that!" Tophats mocked as he blocked an incoming slash from Nel only a second after Demetri's attack.

Demetri stood up again and went to attack, only for Tophats to catch his leg and knock him to the ground. Darren came in quickly with his Pixelator, clashing against one of the power suit's arms before he pulled it away where Tophats then slung the yellow ranger to the ground.

Val and Nel attacked from the front and back of the armoured player, but he easily knocked the Pixelators off course. As the rangers kept unleashing an unrelenting amount of attacks, one after the other, Tophats eventually became tired of their constant and unsuccessful attempts. The next time each ranger attacked, he clamped down on their weapons and locked the rangers in place before releasing in a throw, knocking most of the rangers back and off of their feet while jabbing any of them that got close with his clamps.

Slamming his armoured arms into Demetri two more times, Tophats knocked down the red ranger, leaving them all now struggling to get back up.

Nel gave a grunt as she tried to get up. "He's strong, but we can't let him beat us yet."

"Alright rangers, I'm bored and there's an issue of mad scientist monthly I've gotta get back to reading, so I'll make sure to finish you all off quickly." Tophats explained to them as the red core in the chest of the Power Suit began glowing and lightning began surging from the suit.

The electricity grew stronger and the chains of lightning became larger until Tophats unleashed the powerful surging chains upon them electrocuting the rangers, leaving them helplessly stood there being shocked, the only thing they were able to do was scream out in pain. When the lightning stopped, the five rangers collapsed to the ground, heavily wounded.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

Fuse, Hexagon and Pivillinous were all inside the viewing room of the racer command ship. Fuse walked toward the viewing monitor with a confident air about him.

"Tophats the child genius trapped inside a mechanical powerhouse. I've got to admit, when I first bought him from that slaver a while back, it was more out of curiosity. Seeing you use him so effectively, I'm surprised you weren't happy when we acquired him." Fuse said while looking at the Racer Leader.

"In truth, he's a liability. I send him out if I want someone dead. If he succeeds, he can keep playing for me, if the rangers beat him, I won't have to worry about keeping a crazed brute on my ship." Pivillinous explained.

Fuse smirked and looked at the other Team Leader in the room. "Hear that Hexagon, he's talking about you."

Hexagon gave a growl and began stomping after Fuse. "Get over here bowling ball head, I'm gonna carve you into something useful for a change!"

 **[Primal Protectors]**

The rangers panted heavily as they got up to try and beat Tophats again, but they were clearly in trouble if things kept up like this. "P-Primal, Power Ups. A-Awaken!" The five of them called, struggling through the phrase as they donned their powered up forms.

In unison, the rangers charged forward, Nel diving down to deliver a surprise attack from below while Demetri soared high to come down with an attack from above. While they did so, Darren, Val and Kyle charged forward ready to hammer Tophats with everything they had.

Darren attacked first with a chain of lightning from his claws, only to be blasted aside by Tophats. Val struck with icy cutting energy only to suffer the same fate. Kyle stomped the ground, only to be blasted back by the intense power of Tophats. Nel span quickly to use her signature spinning water attack, only to be knocked into the air where she collided with Demetri causing them both to crash into the ground.

From one side of of Tophats, Val readied herself to pounce on and cut through the armour, while on the other side Darren quickly did the same, striking out to claw the mechanical shell open. From behind Kyle was also ready to attack, but Tophats easily stepped aside and watched as the green ranger went past him and straight in between the yellow and white rangers as he was struck with powerful attacks from both of their claws, staggering him while Tophats unleashed a powerful red beam of energy from the armour's core, sending them flying to the ground.

"You idiots, did you really think you'd pull one off on me, Tophats, the greatest mind in the universe? Imbeciles." He mocked as the rangers staggered to their feet.

Before they had a chance to counterattack, Tophats unleashed another barrage of red energy projectiles, blasting the rangers back to the ground and knocking them out of their powered up forms.

Darren stumbled to his feet, almost falling over. "We won't lose, to someone like you. Morphosis!" He called out, flipping the front of his helmet up and transforming into his Gorilla ranger form.

With the immense might of his Gorilla form, Demetri leapt into the air and towards Tophats, ready to slam against him with all his might. Before he could however, Tophats began sniggering as the Power Suit around him spontaneously increased in size to the size, if not greater than the size of the rangers' Megazord.

As Demetri descended, he was kicked back to the ground by the enlarged foot of the machine. The others rushed to help up the red ranger as they looked up at the now enlarged Tophats.

"He's huge. We didn't even destroy him yet, I don't get it." Val said as they watched Tophats begin to wreck the city.

"These villainous Racers never fight by the rules, I'm not that surprised." Darren added as they heard a thunderous and clearly insane laugh come from the built in speaker in the armour.

"Look who's mighty now! People laughed at me for being wrong. But now I'm gonna laugh at all you for being wrong about me!" Tophats laughed as he tore through buildings.

The rangers raised all of their current miniature zords up high as a synthetic voice sounded off from their morphers. "Primal Mounts, Awaken!" As it did so, the cubic zords raised up high, rendering into their larger forms.

Quickly forming up, the zords combined into the Primal Sharpshooter and Primal Warrior. With the Primal Warrior taking point, it began it's attack with it's standard sword, slashing down the front of Tophat's suit of armour, more accurately now, a mecha. Yet the odd shape Of Tophat's mecha entrapped the sword momentarily while the Player commanded his mecha to hammer the Megazord away with its arm.

From behind, the Primal Sharpshooter unloaded a round from it's Primal Rifle as the Primal Warrior slashed down with it's sword yet again. But Tophats was too fast and caught the weapon in its Pincer-like hand, trapping the Megazord. Coming in close the buzz saw and drill attached to the front of his Mecha began spinning until they came upon the Primal Warrior and Sharpshooter, causing them tos spark violently as they stood there helplessly, before falling backward onto the ground.

Tophats turned ready to end it as the rangers caught wind of something hurtling down from the sky.

"What's that thing coming down from the sky?" Nel asked as the Megazords heads looked over at some sort of spinning cube, coming in closer and faster.

"I don't know but it's coming straight toward us!" Kyle exclaimed as Tophats began charging up a powerful finishing move.

As the Megazords rose, Tophat's mecha unleashed two powerful green beams of energy that made contact with the two Megazords and began tearing them apart.

"Can't hold it…" Demetri groaned as the Megazords were tore apart and the rangers were flung from the cockpits to the ground.

As the beam began descending towards the rangers, now demorphed and lying helplessly on the ground, the fast flying cube from before flew into the line of fire, it was primarily dark, yet resonated with vibrant colours too. A large explosion came from the cube as it was sent hurtling into the forest where it went down in a fiery crash. Yet it had also caused the green beam to backfire, causing Tophat's weapon's to backfire and damage the mecha for the time being.

"My systems, who did that!?" Tophats exclaimed in anger as the mecha shut down to repair itself. "When my machine is operational again, you're in big trouble earth. Mark my words!" He finished as the speaker shut down so that repairs could begin.

The wounded rangers slowly rose, wincing in pain as they did. Looking around, all they could see were ruined buildings and their damaged Primal Mounts that dissolved and returned to the rangers' morphers for repair.

Although they were safe for the time being, it wouldn't be long until Tophat's and his destructive mecha were back in action. When they were, they would have to be ready for it. But with the arrival of the strange cube that just barely saved them, things would become a lot harder and a lot stranger from here on out.

 **|Primal Protectors|**

 **That's Chapter 10 everyone. It turns out Flynn's being lying about what exactly the rangers had been using to morph, and it got them a little on edge about the reliability of their morphing arsenal. With the arrival of Tophats, the adaptation of GIFT, which has a character to it in this version, something I enjoyed doing this time around. Demetri's enhanced vision that found the capsule is also another thing that's gonna factor in more later, and this new stuff I'm introducing is gonna bring some more of the unique stuff of Zyuohger. For now though, the mystery is, what could that flying cube be and why is it now on earth.**

 **The power went out for a bit last night so I got less time to write this up than I could have, but I managed at least. Yesterday I watched the new Doctor Strange Marvel film that's out over here now, so that set me back with writing this a little, but I did enjoy it, so I can't complain really. Last of all I'd like to thank everyone for the positive comments on the last chapter, it being a repetitive one I'm happy it was well received. I hope this one goes just as well. So until whatever I write next, see you all later.**

 **Next Chapter: Primal Awakening**

 **Synopsis: With the rangers injured and the clock ticking until Tophat's mecha is fully repaired and ready to destroy the earth, the rangers must gather all of their strength to defeat him. But with the crash landing of a mysterious cube that now lies in the forest, are the rangers prepared for what is to come? Will this sudden arrival prove beneficial or will it mark their end? Find out next time on Power Rangers: Primal Protectors.**


	11. Chapter 11: Primal Awakening

**Primal Protectors**

 **Chapter 11: Primal Awakening**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Power Rangers or the source material for this fic, Doubutsu Sentai Zyouhger or any other things referenced such as certain games.**

 **The characters appearing were made by: AyatoHattori, Dash master 48, KidF1ash, bobmanv2.0, Thewhatzupwriter26 and Me. Gadget The Critic is the man behind the monsters.**

In the aftermath of the Racer's most recent attack, the beaten Primal Protectors had limped to the safety of Flynn's Arcade. Each of them groaning at the pain as he patched the group up. Though Tophats was currently out of the action, it wouldn't take too long until the destructive mecha was repaired and ready to begin its rampage through the City once again.

"How are we supposed to compete with that thing Flynn? We're nothing without these powers and they don't seem to even scratch it." Kyle asked, uneasy about fighting Tophats again.

"I'm not sure, never seen anything like it. Guess in gaming terms you've encountered your first boss right? You know, the big bad stopping you from progressing until you manage to find what you need to win the day. All you need to do is find what you need to do that." The mentor explained in a way they'd all understand.

"Ugh, this better not be another fetch quest." Darren groaned from where he rested, holding an ice pack to a bruised area of his head.

"I don't think Darren really worded it well, but where are we even gonna start looking for something to beat it? It'll be like looking for a needle in a haystack, for all we know it could just by lying on the floor in a forest." Nel commented, uncertain of how they would find what they needed before it was too late.

At that moment, several signals on Flynn's computer went off, prompting the entire group to move as quickly as they could with their injuries to the station in the main area of the repurposed arcade. Flynn pulled up different readings onto two of his screens before opening footage of Tophat's mecha. One of the screens displaying readouts was monitoring the energy levels of the mecha, which were rapidly increasing as the screen displayed the war machine powering up to wreak more havoc upon its surroundings.

The other screen however showed a satellite view of LA and the surrounding area, it had focused in on the heavily wooded area not too far from the city. From within the area there was a spike in energy with a signature not unlike that of the Rubik Primers, something which caught Flynn's eye.

"Looks like that haystack might not be too big after all. There's a strange energy signature coming from the edge of the nearby forest, that's your best bet for taking this thing down." Flynn informed them as they all prepared to head out. "Tophats is back at it too though. If you're gonna head for that energy signature, you need to be quick. The more time you spend looking for this thing, the more destruction it's gonna cause."

"Then I'll go distract him." Demetri abruptly decided, getting worried looks from some of his team as others questioned his recklessness.

"Demetri, I keep telling you that you're insane for going off to do all this by yourself but I know you'll pull through most of the time. Against Tophats though, I'm serious when I say that it's suicide, we hardly escaped. If it wasn't for that weird and perfectly timed flying cube, we wouldn't be here right now." Kyle explained to the the red ranger just how foolish of a move it would be before sighing. "I can't stop you though can I? Just don't try to be a hero, and don't get yourself killed alright, it'd be hard to celebrate our victory otherwise." The green ranger added as Demetri gave a small and slightly cocky smile.

"If we're celebrating after this, we better be having a big cake." Demetri quickly joked as the rangers left, one to distract Tophats while the rest hunted for the 'key item' that would hopefully defeat the mechanical Racer once and for all.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

Arriving at the site that the energy signature, the four rangers scoured the area, soon happening upon a small woodland stream. Now embedded into the rocky ground at the other side of the stream however was a somewhat familiar sight. While it had resonated with energy while it had flew between them and Tophats during their earlier fight, the strange cube that ha miraculously saved them now sat dark. It appeared to be made from carved stone cubes, however, a corner had been destroyed and sat nearby the main structure.

"Weird, this thing's made of stone and it managed to reflect that blast completely." Val commented as she and the others searched around the wreckage of the strange former UFO.

The scorch marks on the surface of the object were likely from the blast it received from what any of them could tell. "Still no sign of a special item around here." Darren called to the others as he walked around the crashed object to the back. There the yellow ranger jumped back in surprise and exclaimed before speaking up to notify the others of what he had found. "Uh, guys… You might wanna take a look at this."

"What's got you worked up?" Nel asked as she walked around the back of the large cube to see what had caused Darren's slight panic. "Well, that's something you don't see every day. Hey Kyle you're gonna love this!" The blue ranger called out as their remaining two friends walked around to the back of the cube to see what she was talking about.

"Oh hell no. You've gotta be kidding me." The green ranger muttered as he was what they had found.

Lying unconscious was a man, not a human man but what appeared to be a hybrid between some form of Avian species and a man. With where this being laid along with the cube descending from what appeared to be space, Kyle had quickly jumped to one conclusion, this being was from space. There was only one group of aliens they knew of to be half animal and half human, which left little doubt in their minds that what laid before them was in fact, a Zoolander.

Charcoal-ish skin, brown feathers covering much of its face and red highlights around the cheeks and where the eyebrows of the being would be. It's beak was a pale yellow around the edges while much of it appeared to be a dull grey. A brown headband was wrapped around his head with what looked to be pilot goggles over the piece of cloth, hooked into the side of it appeared to be a red feather with a sharp edge to it. His head itself was covered with long white hair with a large red crest stemming from it. The Zoolander's clothing was also rather unique. Dark robe-like attire over an orange undershirt and loose dark pants. These were held together by a belt, the strangest piece of the outfit was the leather-like piece he wore around his neck and over the rest of his clothing, protecting relatively nothing while sporting a square diamond shaped gem at its front. In theme with the rest of the Alien's form, its hands were clawed, shaped similar to that of an Eagle's.

As the four continued to stare at the Zoolander, they noticed that in one hand lay a weapon just like Demetri's chain blade while the other clutched what looked to be another core, exactly like the ones their Rubik Primers contained. As they gazed however, the mysterious Alien began to slowly awaken. Blinking a few times, it was revealed that his eyes were just like that of an Eagle. Seeing to him what were strange and startling new creatures, the Zoolander jumped up in surprise, raising his chain blade in a defensive manner.

"Who are you? What are you? Where am I right now, what planet have I crashed on?" The Alien asked in quick succession, appearing panicked.

"Woah, calm down." Val started as they raised their hands out to show they weren't a threat. "I'm Valerie, I guess we're human and you're on Earth right now." The white ranger explained as the Zoolander sized the group up.

"You're a Zoolander aren't you? I'm guessing that core you're holding and that weapon are too, right?" Kyle asked his own questions, putting the new arrival on edge. "We're Power Rangers, we use the same tech you do to keep our planet safe, when we can anyway." He elaborated as the Zoolander lowered his weapon.

"You are protectors of your planet? Then I am in good company, you can call me Harper. My ship crashed here and suffered extensive damage, with it broken like this, I can't go any further. I've heard of Earth a planet far from my world, for now I am safe." Harper as he introduced vaguely explained to them.

"Safe, what do you mean by that?" Nel asked, curious as to what outlying reason caused the visitor to crash land on their planet.

"I fled my home world in a ship made up of both small and large crystal computers. Because of the earlier beam of energy that blew part of the ship off, many smaller crystal devices have scattered through the area. I have the largest piece in my hand but I must leave and find the scattered devices to begin work on repairing my ship. Please, keep my presence here secret and I will be on my way in no time at all." Harper elaborated as he turned and began walking into the forest despite the rangers not having finished with him, they had come to find a way to defeat Tophats and they wouldn't leave until they had what they needed to stop it.

"Hey! Wait a minute Harper." Darren called as the four jogged up to the Zoolander, entering a rather small clearing. "We came here looking for something. You see, there's this hulking machine piloted by someone we can't even scratch, let alone beat. You're a Zoolander so I'm betting you know a lot more about our ranger powers than we do. We can't beat it unless we get some kinda new weapon that can bust through that armour." He explained, voicing the thoughts his companions also had.

"So you think that some magical space man is just going to unlock the secret powers of the Zooland crystal computers you've been using to transform and defend your home?" Harper asked, the sound of irritation in his voice while the four rangers nodded, confirming that was the idea they had. "I hate to break it to you, but as part of Zooland custom, nothing is just given to you. I guess that's what happens when any species gains strange equipment they have no information on. The ones you have respond to something quite basic, Courage. You've noticed how you can do superhuman feats when you perform courageous acts, when you earn what the devices have to offer. The stronger you stand in the face of overwhelming odds, the more they will respond and the more of its power will become available to you. Certain senses may even become sharper." Harper explained to them, explaining that what they required wasn't some one time item to save the day but something far more valuable.

"Don't tell me that Demetri rushing into things all the time and acting stupid is what's been carrying us through a lot of this." Kyle groaned as he looked over to where the Gigantic mecha was on the move again.

"I don't know who you're talking about but that just sounds like stupidity. True courage is to face a foe far greater than you that makes you afraid and stand your ground, to not back down and never give up, no matter what may happen. Until you learn that, I'm afraid you're unworthy of the technology of my people, so I'll be taking it from you." Harper concluded as he hid his own core and pointed his chain blade at the four rangers

Each of the five tensed as they drew their Rubik Primers. "You can try taking them if you want, but we're not gonna give 'em up without a fight!" Nel challenged as the team activated their morphers. "Primordial Powers, Awaken!" The four rangers called as they morphed in a flash of multi-coloured pixels.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

While Tophats resumed his rampage through the city and Harper faced off against the four he had deemed unworthy, Meizong stood on the ground watching the destruction begin to unfold.

Placing a finger on her cheek, the young Racer decided to voice her thoughts. "You know, all this destruction would make for a great holo-postcard for Mom and Dad. 'Having a blast.' Yeah sounds like the perfect caption." She said to herself as she head footsteps quickly moving toward her. "Oh, looks like the fun's about to begin again." She commented as the red ranger sprinted up a set of nearby steps to come face to face with the villainess. "Huh, you're on your own. Guess you're either really brave or really stupid, maybe both."

"It doesn't matter if I'm on my own or not, I can still hold you back until the others arrive, no matter how hard it might be to keep going. That's because I know they'll come through for me and for everyone else that's counting on us right now." Demetri spoke out, countering Meizong's comments with words that would've inspired the other rangers had they been there.

Flipping open his morpher he keyed in his number. "One, Eagle!" His morpher announced. "Beast Ready!" It confirmed as Demetri pressed down on the activation button closed his Primer, holding the device in front of him.

Twisting the upper section of the morpher until the image matched, it flashed a bright red. "Primordial Powers, Awaken!" He finally called as a layer of vibrant red pixels covered his body, quickly giving way to his ranger form as Demetri charged forward, sprinting past Meizong and toward the hulking mecha as its weapons charged up.

"Maybe I should give Tophats a head start on the destruction before that ranger tried to ruin the fun." Meizong added as she flipped a handful of Quarter coins in the air, which landed around the red ranger, spawning a squadron of Quarters to stop him in his tracks.

One had spawned directly in front of Demetri, taking the initiative, it leapt at his with an overhead strike. However, he quickly responded to the immediate threat, dropping to one knee before rolling to his left, narrowly avoiding the attack. Turning onto his hands and knees, the red ranger sprung from the ground, dodging another swing from the weapon of a Quarter as he did so. Continuing his defensive movements, Demetri sprinted toward the outermost Quarter, hopping over a sweeping blow from his foe as he passed. As the group rearranged and tried to attack again, Demetri swiftly dodged an attack and attempted to tackle the attacking minion, though he stumbled backward upon making contact with the sturdier opponent. From there, he turned only to be rammed and taken back by a Quarter as more surrounded and latched onto Demetri as he began to be slowly overwhelmed by the numbers.

Taking a chance, Demetri struck his elbow into the Quarter who had taken the advantage first, injuring the foe before he threw him off. Moving off of the momentum of his first strike, the red ranger brought his elbow around and slammed it into the the stomach of the second foe still holding him, knocking the minion back. From there her brought his arm around to the Quarter on his left side and used the force of both arms to push it back, finally freeing the ranger from the grip of the Quarters. The second Quarter he had pushed away was still standing however and took the chance to grasp ahold of Demetri again. However, the red ranger was prepared, taking the foe over his shoulder and taking it to the ground.

"I've gotta up my game." He panted before preparing to unleash his ranger powers. "Primal Power ups, Unleash!" Demetri called out, donning his red feathered wings.

As he did so he charged forward, taking off in a spiral of fire and battering away the Quarters as he cut into them with his wings. As he flew away from the minions, they dropped to their knees, going up in a fiery explosion. From there, Demitri ascended toward Tophats' mecha, the pilot inside of the machine noticing the ranger flying toward him.

"One little ranger flying toward me and my big mecha. Hahaha! Come and meet your maker!" Tophats triumphantly taunted.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

Within the forest, the other rangers faced off against Harper. The Zoolander was the first to strike, sending his chain blade out toward Darren, wrapping it about the yellow ranger's body. As he was encircled by chains, the yellow ranger pulled the blade around, dragging Harper toward the other rangers.

From each side of the Zoolander, Val and Nel charged at him, the former kicking Harper in the head. Harper however leapt over Penelope who ducked and rolled out of the way as she saw what the Zoolander was doing. Dragging the blade back away from Darren, Harper braced himself as the rangers prepared to attack once again. Kyle targeted his head with a roundhouse kick, though Harper quickly blocked the blow as he stumbled backwards.

As the Zoolander tried to step back and regain his bearings, the yellow ranger leapt at him, grasping onto his arms and legs and taking him to the ground. Harper kicked Darren away as Val leapt off of a rock jutting out of the ground and tried to strike him as he rolled out of the way. Though there was no time to breathe as Kyle leapt down and tried to strike with the back of his hand, only to have it blocked by the chain blade Harper held, pushing against the green ranger's arm as he struggled to keep up with the attacks.

Regrouping, the four let out growls, becoming frustrated by the endurance of the Zoolander. "Primal Power ups, Unleash!" Each of them called as they summoned their more animalistic weapons.

"Perhaps I was wrong about you four, maybe you aren't the cowards looking for any easy way out like I thought you were." Harper said to the rangers as they proceeded with the battle.

"We'll show you just how wrong you are." Kyle growled as they readied themselves to use their powered up forms against their adversary.

Slamming his feet on the ground, Kyle caused minor shockwaves which caused Harper to spread his wings and take off from the ground, dodging the attacks as best he could. As the green ranger ceased his attack and the Zoolander set foot on the ground, Valerie leapt from behind wrapping her hands around him, the two struggled as the white ranger attempted to take the Zoolander down to the ground. This resulted in them both falling to the ground as Harper rolled away from his current threat.

Quickly rising to his feet, Harper was once again caught by surprise as Nel slammed into him having built up enough momentum to deliver her signature technique straight into her foe, having taken up the form of a sharp and watery spinning disk that pelted Harper with a high pressure jet of water upon contact. Ceasing her attack, the ranger ducked as Harper retaliated with a left hook. As she maneuvered away from the Zoolander, an arc shaped projectile of pink wintery energy shot past his head.

From close by, Val unleashed a volley of the energy projectiles from her claws, but Harper had regained some control in the fight and was blocking the attacks quickly before deflecting one back at the white ranger and knocking her away.

Harper's blind spot was where Darren decided he would attack. From the right flank, the ranger went to tackle his target with his lightning charged claws. Slashing and unleashing the lightning he had stored, the yellow ranger followed the paralysing attack up with a heavy kick which knocked harper off of his feet and sent him flying back through the air, landing on the ground in front of the regrouping rangers.

Harper panted as he rose, holding his side as he watched the rangers. He saw that they were exhausted from fighting such a durable opponent and formed what appeared to be a smile. "Against an opponent greater or stronger than yourself, to still keep fighting until victory is in sight. That is the Zoolander way. Even though I might not be the suitable opponent to show you that, I still fought against you in a losing battle. Even when all hope seems lost, have the courage to fight on to the end. I hope you take my words into consideration rangers. You've defeated me today but I must leave to find the fragments of my ship and you need to go, stop what threatens your home and don't back down until it regrets messing with this planet. Until we meet again." Harper bid them farewell as he turned and headed deeper into the forest.

As they each steadied themselves, the rangers heard an explosion as something hit into a building, emerging from the other side and landing on a lower section of the building's roof, causing quite a large explosion.

"Demetri…" Val muttered as the rangers looked at the hulking Tophats mecha in the near distance.

"We've got no time to lose, Demetri's tough but he won't hold out without the rest of us for much longer. Let's get to it." Kyle instructed, taking charge of the situation as the rest of the rangers prepared to battle Tophats as a team this time around and they wouldn't be taking home a defeat this time.

 **[Primal Protectors]**

In the midst of the wreckage of the building that had exploded, the unmorphed form of Demetri lied on his stomach, he let out a pained grunt as he rose to his feet and drew his Rubik Primer once more.

"I'm… Not… Finished… Just gotta… Hold on until… The others… Get here…" He panted as he opened the morphing device and keyed in his secondary form.

"Six, Gorilla!" His morpher announced. "Beast Ready!" It confirmed as Demetri pressed down on the activation button closed his Primer, holding the device in front of him.

Twisting the upper section of the morpher until the image matched, it flashed a bright red. "Primordial Powers, Awaken!" He finally called as a layer of darker red pixels covered his body and quickly gave way to his Gorilla ranger form, already powered up and ready to stall the hulking mecha.

Drawing his chain blade, the red ranger lashed it out in a similar manner to a whip, aiming it at the right arm of the mecha which it quickly coiled around. Commanding it to reel him in, Demetri built up his momentum as he readied an energised fist, just before contact however, Tophats knocked the ranger away effortlessly with the arms of the mecha around him, sending the red ranger crashing to the ground where he lost his morphed state.

Meizong gave a giggle from where she observed the losing battle Demetri had been fighting. "What a moron you are! Seriously you give Fuse and Hexagon a run for their money! Oh well I guess it's about time for you to die now. Tophats, cue the light show!" She comically commanded the pilot of the mecha as a bloodied Demetri struggled to rise.

"It-t's not a d-damn light sh-ow!" Tophats stuttered, clearly having a nerve struck by his supervisor.

"Yeah, yeah. I don't really care, just get on with it." She casually ordered, not paying much attention to the small tantrum.

Demetri clenched his fist as he attempted to rise. "No, I can't let it end like this… Not when the others are counting on me, to keep going till they find what we need to beat this thing."

"What did I say about going and getting yourself killed? You don't listen do you?" The familiar voice of the green ranger called out to the red ranger. "Doesn't matter anyway, there wasn't a magical object that's gonna save the day. It wasn't a total loss though, maybe you're right. We might not be cut out for this but we'll try our hardest to beat this thing." Kyle admitted as he and the other rangers gathered at the fallen red ranger's side.

"We all know how hard you're trying dude, to stand up to that thing's really brave, but you know we're here to stand by and help you right?" Darren added to Kyle's words.

"We'll all go up against that thing no matter how many tries it takes and we'll beat that cocky snot nosed Tophats into the ground when we finally do." Penelope affirmed what her teammates were saying as Demetri saw newfound determination in their eyes.

"Besides, it's not every day you get to take down a boss in real life. You up for it?" Val finished the rest of the team's thoughts before directing her question at the red ranger who slowly rose as they all drew their Primers.

"One, Eagle! Two, Shark! Three, Lion! Four, Elephant! Five, Tiger! Beasts Ready!" Their morphers called out as they keyed in their animals, proceeding to close it and twist it into position.

"Primordial Powers, Awaken!" All five called, morphing in a brilliant burst of multi-coloured pixels.

"Lord of the Skies! Primal Protector Red!" Demetri began.

"Predator of the Deep! Primal Protector Blue!" Nel called out, following on.

"King of the Jungle! Primal Protector Yellow!" Darren exclaimed, letting out a roar.

"Behemoth of the Forest! Primal Protector Green!" Kyle announced while pumping his arm.

"Stalker of the Blizzard! Primal Protector White!" Valerie finished off.

"Virtual Players, Real Heroes! Power Rangers, Primal Protectors!" The rangers called out in unison.

Wiping his helmet from bottom to top, Demetri took a breath in. "Now you're messing with pros!"

Meizong looked at the five rangers, a renewed look about them. "Well then, I've got a feeling this' gonna end badly. Sorry but you're on your own Tophats!" She waved goodbye as she teleported to the Racer command ship via the coin stack style teleporter.

"M-M-Meizong Y-You Can't-t leave m-me he-re!" Tophats stuttered as he looked at the now strengthened team of rangers before him.

Each of them raised their miniature zords to the air. "Primal Mounts, Awaken!" The unified group called as the miniature zords rose high and increased in size until they reached their real size. Leaping inside their zords, the group charged at a panicked Tophats.

"Let's show him what we're made of." Demetri told the others who each gave a nod.

"Win or lose." Darren and Kyle both said.

"Let's kick his ass!" Both Valerie and Penelope finished as each ranger opened up their Primer to begin combining their zords.

However, upon opening their Primers, the first six buttons all shone brightly. "Hey does this what I think it means?" Demetri asked.

"That the whole thing about courage being the source of our power wasn't a total waste of time?" Kyle jested.

"That we get a sweet new power up?" Darren asked to which Demetri shook his head.

"Oh I think it's something much better than a power up. Let's try this formation out!" The red ranger said with a cheer as they keyed in each number.

"One! Two! Three! Four! Five! Six! Protector Mech, Initialised!" Their morphers called out as six square hoops appeared followed shortly by two smaller ones.

Each zord in their arsenal quickly made their way through one of the hoops, the Giraffe and Mole zords entering the two smaller hoops as the zords began to form up into whatever new combination they had unlocked.

"Four! Three! Two! Five!" Their morphers called out as the four zords forming up the main body of the Megazord connected, beginning with the bottom and ending with the top. "One! Six!" It called out again as the first attached to the right of the white tiger zord while the sixth attached to it's left side. As with all other Megazords, the spike descended into the centre of the Megazord as the bazooka of the Gorilla zord folded and attached to the chest of the new Megazord to act as additional armour. Twisting around the first and sixth zords converted into arms while the Giraffe and Mole zords attached to the legs of the Megazord. As the finishing touch, the gun of the Primal Sharpshooter folded open and attached itself to the head of the Megazord while the face was twisted into position and the sword withdrew from the head of the new Megazord.

Each ranger sat in the slightly grander and more spacious Megazord took a few moments to look at the new formation before they looked at each other. "So. What're we gonna call this one?" Penelope asked from her seat as the others scratched their chins.

"I think seeing as Kyle was the one to finally come to his senses that he deserves to name it." Demetri decided as the team looked to the green ranger.

"Huh, I finally get to name something. Let's go with something rational for once. How about the Primal Paladin?" Kyle suggested.

Darren gave a groan. "Seriously? Paladin's are always ruining everything, they're tanky as hell and they're good for damage too!" The yellow ranger complained as the others gave a snigger.

"Sounds like a perfect fit then." Demetri decided. "Primal Paladin." He started.

"Player Ready!" His teammates continued as they prepared to face off against Tophats.

"Ha, that thing might be huge but I've got just the thing for it! Try beating me when your Megazord's been hypnotised, yet another one of my special talents!" Tophats laughed as his mecha fired off a red beam that upon contact, appeared to bounce off of the Primal Paladin. "What!? How could it do nothing!?"

"That's another thing I hate about playing against Paladins, no matter what status you inflict on them, it's pretty much a waste of time when they just have some cure ability. Sorry kid you're up against a Paladin now, welcome to the real world. Gotta admit though, when you're playing one, it's not half bad." The yellow ranger laughed as the Primal Paladin advanced toward Tophats and his mecha, unscathed by the barrage of attacks that would've tore apart any of their previous Megazords.

From inside the cockpit each of the rangers span their control cubes rapidly, commanding the Primal Paladin to punch the mecha, causing sparks to fly as the hit dented the metallic armour. Two more successive hits appeared to critically damage the integrity of the mecha surrounding Tophats.

"Damn it! I'm really wishing I figured out how to get outta this thing now!" Tophats panicked as he charged up all the energy the mecha could send out in one attack.

In the cockpit of the Primal Paladin, each ranger drew their Rubik Primer and twisted it to complete the image of the group of animals, each of them lighting up red.

"Looks like it's finally time." Nel said as she slotted her morpher back into her control cube.

"You know what, when this is over, I think I'm gonna find a game to play Paladin on." Darren decided as he slotted his morpher into his control cube.

"To be honest, I didn't expect today to throw what it did at us, but together, we'll take on whatever else the future decides to throw our way!" Kyle exclaimed as he slotted his morpher into his control cube.

"Let's sing it loud that this planet is ours to protect!" Val added on as she slotted her morpher into her control cube.

"And we'll do it together, cause we're not gonna give up until the Racer's are done for!" Demetri finished as he slotted his morpher into his control cube and the Megazord began to charge up.

From it's chest extended fluctuating columns of pixelated energy, extending further and building up to a critical level. "Primal Paladin, Unleashed Burst!" The five rangers called out as the blast fired toward Tophats and his mecha as it split into five separate beams, coloured to match the colours of the rangers.

After the beams of the Megazord and mecha collided, they shot back and forth for a few moments. "Now you're dealing… With Pros!" Demetri called from the cockpit as the energy beams of the Primal Paladin shot forward, completely ignoring the blast Tophats had fired and struck into the mecha, obliterating both it and Tophats as it disintegrated into a mass of pixels.

"Game Over!" They triumphantly cheered as the battle fresh Megazord stood over the remains of the mecha.

 **|Primal Protectors|**

 **And that is the long awaited Chapter 11 over and done with, finally. So it's been a while and I'll apologise for it being a long time since the last one again seeing as Zyuohger is finished and it's a ways into Kyranger too, so I really have been holding this off for a while. Either way I'm extremely satisfied with how the chapter turned out and while I could go on for a bit longer, it seemed just right to end it with the Megazord triumphant today.**

 **We had Flynn accidentally misleading the rangers about what they were looking for, where they met Harper (Otherwise known as the adaptation of Bud) who's quite different from his Sentai counterpart. Why did he crash land and what is he even doing that led to him landing you might ask, well stay tuned to find out. Then we finally had the big assembly of the Primal Paladin, I thought it was fitting given how powerful Paladins are usually represented, weapons doing nothing to them that would kill a normal man etc. But Darren did exaggerate a little on what a Paladin can do. With Tophats finally gone, it's time to move on to the next set of focuses, starting with Kyle.**

 **Next Chapter: Nobody Buys Books Anymore**

 **Synopsis: Happening by a games shop to pick up a copy of the latest strategy game, Kyle happens upon a struggling bookstore owner going out of business. Because of all the easy ways to buy books digitally or have them delivered to them, going to a bookstore has become less and less common, leading to this situation among many store owners. Being sympathetic, Kyle aims to turn things around for the owner. But can he do so when an information hungry Player attacks the city, literally devouring words. Find out next time on Power Rangers: Primal Protectors.**


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